No, if there's any ultimate redemption, it would be because I passed though your life without scarring you, and did not diminish who you are.

I receive about 10,000 letters a year from readers, and in the first year after a book is published, perhaps 5,000 letters will deal specifically with that piece of work.

One of the underlying things I like to do in books, is just say, stop and look at this for a moment. Not that you've got to believe that Jesus was real, or not to believe in God, but the belief that it isn't just happenstance.

...at it's best fiction is medicine.

Always, beneath every apparent chaos, order waits to be revealed.

We have a responsibility to stand watch over one another, we are watchers, all of us, watchers, guarding against the darkness.

When you have dogs, you witness their uncomplaining acceptance of suffering, their bright desire to make the most of life in spite of the limitations of age and disease, their calm awareness of the approaching end when their final hours come. They accept death with a grace that I hope I will one day be brave enough to muster.