He recalls what that first German soldier said to his major: No God-not yours or mine-approves of what you're doing.

We may talk a good game and write even better ones, but we never outgrow those small wounded things we were when we were five and six and seven.

A single, ordinary person still can make a difference - and single, ordinary people are doing precisely that every day.

Food is a gift and should be treated reverentially--romanced and ritualized and seasoned with memory.

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.

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?).

Dead … might not be quiet at all.