The short of it is, as an aspiring writer, there is nothing as damaging to your credibility as saying that you don't like to read.

Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.

The finger cut, to save the hand.

sometimes the shifting of rocks is deep, deep below, and it's powerful and scary down there, but that all we feel on the surface is a slight tremor. Only a slight tremor.

I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn’t.

People…shouldn’t be allowed to have new children if they’d already given away all their love to their old ones. It wasn’t fair.

But if you have a book that needs urgent reading,' she said, 'then Hakim is your man.