All any of us wanted, really, was to know that we counted. That someone else's life would not have been as rich without us here.

If you don't believe in yourself, and you don't have the fortitude to make that dream happen, why should the hotshots in the publishing world take a chance on you? I don't believe that you need an MFA to be a writer, but I do think you need to take some good workshops.

I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names.

I think my writing has become "cleaner."

The more you get past pain, the more it goes from coal to diamond.

My friends say I have two speeds: fast and blistering.

People are always afraid of the unknown - and banding together against the Thing That Is Different From Us is a time-honoured tradition for rallying the masses.