The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life --and one is as good as the other.

Summary

This quote suggests that the key elements that make a book "good" are either fragments of experiences a writer stumbles upon unexpectedly or reflections of their personal struggles. It implies that there is no distinction in terms of quality between what is obtained purely by chance or what is derived from the writer's own challenges and hardships. In essence, both sources have the potential to create equally valuable and compelling content for a book.