He considered it a shame when people couldn't grasp the infinite-a failure not just of imagination but of simple vision.

I'm a professional. So before I published any novels, I'd always been writing stories.

Who isn't crazy sometimes? Who hasn't driven around a block hoping a certain person will come out; who hasn't haunted a certain coffee shop, or stared obsessively at an old picture; who hasn't toiled over every word in a letter, taken four hours to write a two-sentence email, watched the phone praying it will ring; who doesn't lay awake at night sick with the image of her sleeping with someone else?

I've been a dad since I was nineteen, so I think a lot about fatherhood and the power of that sacrifice in your life.

What kind of wife would I be if I left your father simply because he was dead?

This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life.

I think most Hollywood meetings are silly and I truly despise pitching. It's insane to expect someone to come in and tell you the story before they've written it, and buying an idea from someone who can explain it rather than write it is like choosing a mechanic based on his ability to draw a picture of your car's problem.