How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
When I was a boy I liked to write. It was the only thing I wanted to with my life. (1.14)
Leo laments—with a note of bitterness—in these lines, as circumstances prevented from him from living his dream.
Quote #2
I started again. This time I didn't write about real things and I didn't write about imaginary things. I wrote about the only thing I knew. The pages piled up. (1.15)
Leo suggests that his beloved occupies a place between the real and the imaginary—and that she's the only thing he really knows. What do you think he means by this? How can he not know about all the things that are real? More to the point, why is she not real herself? And why is she so much easier to write about than normal real stuff?
Quote #3
At times I believed that the last page of my book and the last page of my life were one and the same, that when my book ended I'd end, a great wind would sweep though my rooms carrying the pages away, and when the air cleared of all those fluttering white sheets the room would be silent, the chair were I sat would be empty. (1.24)
From this statement, one might expect the book to be a memoir or an autobiography that encapsulates Leo's life. But, as far as the reader knows, it's not. What does this say about his self-conception? Or the value he places on being able to express himself in writing?