A book does not discriminate against any reader. All are welcome at the table of literature.

A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.

But the sensibility of the writer, whether fiction or poetry, comes from paying attention. I tell my students that writing doesn't begin when you sit down to write. It's a way of being in the world, and the essence of it is paying attention.

Every writer can tell you that a book is only truly alive when it finds passionate readers who bring it alive in their imaginations.

It's always gratifying to hear from a passionate reader, and as a longtime educator, I'm especially pleased and heartened when that reader is a young student who is inspired to write me and let me know that my book has helped him or her find her way.

Reading is a way to take in the difficult situations and understand them. The whole point of reading a book in class is to have discussion about what these situations are like.

The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.