"God pity the poor novelist."
— Steven Millhauser (Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright)

"So imagine a fire going -- wood snapping the way it does when it’s a little green — the wind rattling the windows behind the curtains -- and one of those Chopin melodies that feel like sorrow and ecstasy all mixed together pouring from the keys -- and you have my idea of happiness. Or just reading, reading and lamplight, the sound of pages turning.
And so you dare to be happy.
You do that thing.
You dare."
— Steven Millhauser

"All words are masks and the lovelier they are, the more they are meant to conceal."
— Steven Millhauser