Kittredge had obviously misjudged her, but he had learned that was the way with most people. The story was never the story, and it surprised you, how much another person could carry.

It's different being afraid when there's the hope it will amount to something.

Every book has got its challenges. You run into a plot point that you can't figure out, or a scene that you struggle to write and have to write 50 times.

It was what you did, Wolgast understood; you started to tell a story about who you were, and soon enough the lies were all you had and you became that person.

You learn to write by reading, and my experiences and tastes as a reader are pretty wide.

And I grew up on a steady diet of science fiction, especially apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction.

This ravishing world. This achingly bittersweet, ravishing world.