But then there are the van Goghs and Hemingways and Mozarts, those who feel a hunger so deep, so far down, that greatness lies there too, nestled somewhere within it. Those who get their inner voice and direction from the cool mysterious insides of the moon, and not from the earth like the rest of us.

Supposedly there's an actual, researched link between extreme creativity and mental illness, and I believe it because I've seen it with my own eyes.

We're as good at talking ourselves out of fear as into it, aren't we? Maybe better.

It was all the things you could never understand and could never possess that made you ache.

No, Mom. I said fine." "It's just your tone." Ah, yes- the tone. The nasty traitor.

The romantic element is what the story Essential Maps for the Lost, sort of sits on, but all the stuff below the surface is really about family. It's about the baggage we bring, both the good and the hard stuff in that baggage. It's more about the other relationships. It's about mothers and fathers and sisters and dogs, all of the pieces. It's really more about - yes, love, in its widest usage.

Although I love snow, it messes things up terribly around Seattle, with all of our hills. I worry about my loved ones driving.