I spent uncounted hours sitting at the bow looking at the water and the sky, studying each wave, different from the last, seeing how it caught the light, the air, the wind; watching patterns, the sweep of it all, and letting it take me. The sea.

Things seemed to go back and forth between reality and imagination--except that it was all reality.

And the last thought he had that morning as he closed his eyes was: I hope the tornado hit the moose.

Words are alive--when I've found a story that I love, I read it again and again, like playing a favorite song over and over. Reading isn't passive--I enter the story with the characters, breathe their air, feel their frustrations, scream at them to stop when they're about to do something stupid, cry with them, laugh with them. Reading for me, is spending time with a friend. A book is a friend. You can never have too many.

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.

I read like a wolf eats. I read myself to sleep every night.

Personal inspection at zero altitude. The stories come from my life - if not my own experiences, then about topics and subjects that interest me.