But there it is: Everyone is alone, for life, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.

The poem has to bear the weight with image, language... the screenplay with dialogue, plot.

I am politically pro-choice, but personally pro-life. I have my faith but refuse to force it on the world at large - especially this world, so brutal and unjust. I cannot make these wrenching personal life and death decisions for others - nor do I believe they should be made by a church run by childless men.

As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately.

I always think I know the way a novel will go. I write maps on oversized art pads like the kind I carried around in college when I was earnest about drawing. I need to have some idea of the shape of the novel, where its headed, so that I can proceed with confidence. But the truth is my characters start doing and saying things I don't expect.

I don't know when I'm writing dark. I don't know when I'm writing funny or even heartbreaking. I'm always just trying to write it true.

The intricacy of plotting a thriller is akin to writing formal poetry.