Kids are really tougher than adults, but we tend to forget this in an affluent society that lets kids indulge themselves.

Hiding under the bed doesn't make the worry stop.

If I'm writing by intuition, generally that calculation works itself out. But if I'm writing a mystery, and somebody has to have a reason for doing what he's doing, and it's not anything I can imagine myself wanting to do, things get a little more difficult to write, and careless mistakes are made.

...a really good friend, the kind of friend who - when they were together both of them were more able to be who they really were.

I was no scholar in college, and was arrogant about what I thought.

The worst things weren't outside of you.

I got used to being a writer. To compare it to teaching - I taught for twenty-five years; for the first two or three years it was heady. I was discovering that I could do something and do it well. Be useful to people. It was exhilarating, sort of like the first two weeks of being in love with somebody, and then it becomes like the third bite of pizza. The first bite is wonderful. The second bite is not disappointing. The third? Meh. You get used to it.