No matter what losses happen in a given season, the Red Sox always have next year.

Writers aren't born properly labeled so it is hard to know one when one appears.

Sometimes you meet someone and you know that your life will be different from then on.

Our love is our burden.

The lessons learned in journalism also apply. Writing for NPR has taught me to cut a piece in half and then in half again - without losing the essence. Apply that to the swollen prose of a bulky novel and you might reveal a beautiful work.

I wrote before I could write. I got my hands on a journal, maybe a hand-me-down; I had three older siblings. My first entries are in the handwriting of the sister closets in age (5 years my senior). She must have gotten tired of my dictations because she gave up and then my blocky scrawl shows up. I wrote plays as a kid mostly.

Don't shame the young for releasing their pent-up fear.