The reality is that most of North America knows next to nothing of the 20th centurys first genocide - the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in the First World War.

And though some days it is very hard, I try not to live for the future. And I try not to dream of the past.

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.

When it seems you have nothing at all to live for, death is not especially frightening.

I have lived with magic and without magic, and I can tell you with certainty that a life with magic is better.

The reality is that most of North America knows next to nothing of the 20th centurys first genocide - the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in the First World War.

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