You know, it's a funny thing about writers. Most people don't stop to think of books being written by people much like themselves. They think that writers are all dead long ago--they don't expect to meet them in the street or out shopping. They know their stories but not their names, and certainly not their faces. And most writers like it that way.

Only in books could you find pity, comfort, happiness and love.

My daughter, Anna, is almost 15, and my son, Ben, is almost 10.

perhaps because this time not fear but love made him read.

Meggie Folchart: Having writer's block? Maybe I can help. Fenoglio: Oh yes, that's right. You want to be a writer, don't you? Meggie Folchart: You say that as if it's a bad thing. Fenoglio: Oh no, it's just a lonely thing. Sometimes the world you create on the page seems more friendly and alive than the world you actually live in.

Beauty and fear make uneasy companions

Let's run away to Venice, and hide out in an old movie theater. We can dye our hair blonde, so no one will ever find us!