He defined himself almost wholly in the negative: It was not who he was, it was who he was not.

As a novelist, there are three phone calls you never expect to receive in your lifetime because if you waited for them you would grow despairing - one calling from Stockholm with a Swedish accent, one from the NBA, and one from Oprah Winfrey.

Life is filled with small moments that seem prosaic until one has the distance to look back and see the chain of large moments they unleashed.

He defined himself almost wholly in the negative: It was not who he was, it was who he was not.

The honest answer is more complex. On some level I was sent. Or inspired. Or called. But my calling, such as it was, wasn't a single booming invitation from above (really, is it ever?).

With age comes acumen. With experience comes insight.

My grandparents, like many genocide survivors, took most of their stories to their graves.