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

I didn't have to do that much research to present a post-apocalyptic New York because I basically grew up in that New York. That old New York is gone, and that's one thing that's undiscoverable now but I explore in my fiction.

Sanctimony and self-regard are as American as smallpox blankets and supersize meals.

The city knows you better than any living person because it has seen you when you are alone.

His legs remembered the correct position for squatting down with toys. He played. He fit the round male studs into the round female grooves. He got some thinking done as he hunkered down on his fallen-sleep legs.

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

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?