I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.

It turned out that, like Satan, cancer had many names.

She was the trembler of knees, the spiller of teacups.

Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.

You see, some things I can teach you. Some you learn from books. But there are things that, well, you have to see and feel.

hills that stand soft and a sky that stands high and blue, and the sun setting behind a windmill, and always, always, hazy strings of mountains that fall and fall away on the horizon.

I grew up with some kind of storytelling instinct, and when I write, my default setting is to find a story and then to tell it. It's the only way I know how to write.