So we gave up. I'd finally had enough of chasing after a ghost who did not want to be seen. We'd failed, maybe, but some mysteries aren't meant to be solved.

I don't really want to be the costar of anyone's life.

I write about broken people who need other people in order to go on. But those are the only kind of people I know to exist. We are all broken.

I never really understood that massive collaboration involving hundreds of people is what makes movies possible, and it's also why I would agree that curiosity is not the most important human trait; the urge to collaborate is. Heck . . . only we have the ability to cooperate to make like online communities and space telescopes and imaginariums and movies. So the great thrill of this whole experience [my novel being made into a movie] for me was . .. .seeing humanity do what it's best at, which ultimately is not competing but cooperating.

You used," he said, and then took a sharp breath, "to call me Augustus.

Boys do not have the monopoly in Staring Business, after all.

Life works best when we think of people as people.