A literary achievement of the highest order.

He decided then that he would love her forever no matter what came to pass. It was not so much a matter of deciding as accepting the inevitability of it. It made him feel better, though he felt perturbed, too, worried that this kiss was wrong. But from his point of view, at fourteen years old, their love was entirely unavoidable. It had started on the day they'd clung to his glass box and kissed in the sea, and now it must go on forever. He felt certain of this.

There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left.

Time made me change. I gradually woke up to the realization that this is who I am, an author, a public figure, and I couldn't just hide in my study, tapping away at the keyboard and pretend that I didn't have a role to play beyond stringing words together.

My father is a practicing criminal law attorney in the Seattle area.

Hemingway said the only way to write about a place is to leave it.

At one level you're condemned to the voice you have. But within those confines, you have a certain amount of freedom to range among your possible voices.