When was the last time someone read aloud to you? Probably when you were a child, and if you think back, you'll remember how safe you felt, tucked under the covers, or curled in someone's arms, as a story was spun around you like a web.

Writer's block is for people who have the luxury of time.

She understood how a world jammed with phones, email, and faxes could still leave you feeling utterly alone.

The only way someone can leave you is if you let them.

Maybe if God gives you a handicap, he makes sure you've got a few extra doses of humor to take the edge off.

I wondered about the explorers who'd sailed their ships to the end of the world. How terrified they must have been when they risked falling over the edge; how amazed to discover, instead, places they had seen only in their dreams.

He gently touched his mother's cheek, felt her sorrow slip over his fingertips.