But these weren't the kind of monsters that had tentacles and rotting skin, the kind a seven-year-old might be able to wrap his mind around-they were monsters with human faces, in crisp uniforms, marching in lockstep, so banal you don't recognize them for what they are until it's too late.

When you're writing, at least when I'm writing, I don't think about themes and I try not to sermonize with any particular message.

Fifty-percent of the director's job honestly is casting the movie well.

We cling to our fairy tales until the price for believing in them becomes too high.

If you are a conscious human being who has opinions about the world, then you will unconsciously put your own perspective into the book.

Whenever I try to map things out they inevitably change. Which doesn't mean I don't map them out — I just try to embrace the better ideas that come along as my fingers are flying around the keyboard mid-draft!

Laughing doesn't make bad things worse any more than crying makes them better. It doesn't mean you don't care, or that you've forgotten. It just means you're human.