Food for thought from "The Giant's House" by Elizabeth McCracken:

There is nothing I can't make into a library in my brain, no objects I don't imagine borrowing or lending out. Not out of generosity - I am a librarian, and protective - but out of a sense of strange careful justice. Part of me believes all material things belong to all people.

Peggy, you're too serious. In this life, you have to make things up.
Why?
Because. Because - that's what life is. Making yourself believe the best things you can.

...that he would, in fact, withhold things that would not ordinarily be secrets, just for the pleasure of withholding them. This was because Caroline so desperately wanted to hear them. You never tell your secrets to people who want to know, I understood that much.