When you are a king, you may make as many ridiculous laws as you like. That is what being a king is all about.

... every time you look at the world and the people in it closely, lovingly, imaginatively, it changes you. The world, under the microscope of your attention, opens up like a beautiful, strange flower and gives itself back to you in ways you could never imagine.

Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others.

It is truly excellent to have someone believe in you and your ability to write. But I think it is just as helpful to have people who don't believe in you, people who mock you, people who doubt you, people who enrage you. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of this type of person in the world ... write for yourself. Write for the story. And write, also, for all of the people who doubt you. Write for all those people who are not brave enough to do this grand and wondrous thing themselves. Let them motivate you.

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

Minnesota has been so good to me and so pleased that I love Minnesota.

It's hard not to immediately fall in love witha dog who has a good sense of humor.