You should learn to say nothing that will cause you regret. You should not say what is not in your heart - or what is only in your heart for a moment. But you know this - silence is better.

He didn't like very many people any more, or very many things either. He preferred not to be this way, but there it was, he was like that. His cynicism, a veteran's cynicism, was a thing that disturbed him all the time.

The strange thing was, he wanted to like everyone. He just couldn't find a way to do it.

Even though I may not intend it when I set out to write the book, these places just emerge as major players in what I'm doing, almost as if they are insisting on it.

When I went to college I took a creative writing class and decided in a week to be a writer.

The best advice on writing I've ever received is to take it seriously, because to do it well is all-consuming.

What some people interpret as brooding melancholy is serenity. I don't feel required to grasp all the time.