As long as we remember a person, they're not really gone. Their thoughts, their feelings, their memories, they become a part of us.

Choosing writing as a career, just by itself, is a measure of not being a calculating person.

I came to Houston for a job, the reason most people move halfway across the country with a first grader and a five-week-old. I came here to teach at Rice.

Because that's what heaven is...it's opening the door of a house in twilight and everyone you love is there.

If asked to name the worst moment of his life, Michael Fisher wouldn't have hesitated to give his answer: it was when the lights went out.

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.

It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.