If you've had good gin on a hot day in Southern California with the people you love, you forget Nebraska. The two things cannot coexist. The stronger, better of the two wins.

It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.

I know that there are people out there who believe we should get rid of all guns.

I know where I'm going. And if I don't know where I'm going, I don't tend to get anywhere.

Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

You can't always trust what you think, what you know ... but you can always trust your nature.

I am the person who is appropriating stories that are not mine and turning them into a book.