"Oh, hardly any of that is really worth talking over. Truly most of that was writing just to write—to feel as if I were doing something, you know. The illusion of productivity, or what have you."

This is said with said casual candidness that it must be true, and also must be something she has made purposefully remote either by time or his return or some other factor so that if it ever held a sharp edge (maybe it had) that it's now been blunted.

"Oh, but that does remind me. I told you I was going to tell you everything I found out about dreaming and the Gates. But that too should make for a very short conversation, so I'm tempted to retain it until this afternoon in case we need to fill, oh, forty seconds or so."