Holly McGhee said I should come to dinner with them. That first dinner, I said something pretty smart-alecky, and Alison [McGhee] laughed really hard at it. It made me happy.

I feel like I've been blessed. I see the world through stories.

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.

Did you think that rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And the heart of any living thing can be broken.

When I was a kid I loved to read, but I didn't write and I didn't create imaginary worlds. So, if one student walks away thinking, "She's obviously just an ordinary person, yet she gets to make her living doing what she wants to do. Maybe that applies to me, too," then I feel like my time has been well spent.

It is our duty and our joy to communicate our hearts to each other. Words assist us in this task.

Writing is seeing. It is paying attention.