Longing is not always a reciprocal thing.

And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.

You are down there alone, the stars seemed to say to him. And we are up here, in our constellations, together.

It is important that you say what you mean to say. Time is too short. You must speak the words that matter.

[A businessmen in plane after 9\11] asked me, "What are you working on now?" And I said I was writing a story about a mouse who tries to save a princess. I was mortified. Here the world is falling down around us, and I'm trying to tell the story about a mouse who saves a princess. I said "It doesn't matter at all now."

On the return flight from my mother in Florida , I sat next to a businessman who asked me what I did for a living. I said, "I write," and it seemed totally ridiculous in the face of what had just happened. I mean, I couldn't think of anything more pointless than telling stories. He asked, "What do you write?" I said, "I write children books."

I need to write, and I can't write when I'm on the road.