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.

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

I'm still an English professor at Rice University here in Houston. They've been very generous in letting me on a very long leash to just work on 'The Passage' and its sequels.

I was very much a child of the Cold War.

The sadness you feel is not your own. It's his sadness you feel in your heart, Amy, for missing you.

I'm an ecumenical reader, grew up with all sorts of fiction, teach writing, went to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, so my tastes and interests are broad.

We live, we die. Somewhere along the way, if we're lucky, we may find someone to help lighten the load.