What did falling in love do for you? Can you ever really explain it? It filled empty spaces I never knew were empty. It cured a loneliness I never knew I had. It gave me joy. And freedom. I think that was the most amazing part. I suddenly felt both embraced and freed at the same time.

But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians," confided Gamache. "All that silence. Gives them ideas.

Few things are better in the world than a room full of librarians. I consider them literary heroes. The keepers and defenders of the written word.

The women in the room chatted about love, about childhood, about losing parents, about Mr. Spock, about good books they'd read. They mothered each other.

How much more courage it took to be kind than to be cruel.

I turned down all the requests for the rights to the books, for years, mostly because they wanted the rights to the characters, and to turn it into a TV series. This would have allowed them to do anything they wanted with the characters, and that just wasn't an option for me.

To be honest, the only thing I ever really wanted to be was a writer - since I read 'Charlotte's Web' as a child.