The older I get and the more fiction I write, the more I outline, the more I think about plot before I dive in and plunge too far.

Washington is nicknamed "The Evergreen State" because it sounds better than "The Incessant Nagging Drizzle State."

The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl.

What I need is a search engine that, no matter what I type in, comes back with GO BACK TO WORK.

Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.

We're trying to make our current house look domestic so that somebody will want to buy it. We're making a lot of simple, obvious improvements that never would have occurred to us to make while we actually lived here, because, tragically, we both happen to be domestically impaired. If we were birds, our nest would consist of a single twig with the eggs attached via Scotch tape.

Here in Miami, on weekends, amusement-seekers will come to the marina, set up folding chairs, and spend a highly entertaining day watching boat owners perform comical maneuvers such as forgetting to set their parking brakes and having their cars roll down the ramp and disappear, burbling gaily, below the surface.