Eyes wide and blank as the buttons on a first Communion coat.

Who's a boy gonna talk to if not his mother?

When the guy with asthma finally came in from the fire escape, Parker rabbit-punched him and took his gun away.

Hoke Moseley is a magnificently battered hero. Willeford brings him to us lean and hard and brand-new.

Nobody gets everything in this life. You decide your priorities and you make your choices. I'd decided long ago that any cake I had would be eaten.

I start with the story, almost in the old campfire sense, and the story leads to both the characters, which actors should best be cast in this story, and the language. The choice of words, more than anything else, creates the feeling that the story gives off.

Whenever things sound easy, it turns out there's one part you didn't hear.