I write books and either people read them or they don't read them. The rise of Facebook or e-books doesn't change the difficulty level of writing sentences and thinking up new ideas.

A lot of people, when they first hear about the Underground Railroad, think it really is a subway or a locomotive. When they find out it's not, they feel a little disappointed. So I thought, What if it was a literal underground train network traveling from state to state, with each state it goes through representing a different opportunity or danger?

Pain could be killed. Sadness could not, but the drugs did shut its mouth for a time.

There will be no redemption because the men who run this place do not want redemption. They want to be as near to hell as they can.

It is failure that guides evolution; perfection provides no incentive for improvement, and nothing is perfect.

In other words, fiction is payback for those who have wronged you.

I can't blame modern technology for my predilection for distraction, not after all the hours I've spent watching lost balloons disappear into the clouds. I did it before the Internet, and I'll do it after the apocalypse, assuming we still have helium and weak-gripped children.