A good journalist, as you know, is a great listener. And so's a good writer. And I got to listen to people for almost 20 years. That serves me well, I hope, when I try to understand how a character might be feeling, or how they might react.

What people mistook for safety was in fact captivity.

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

No good ever comes from putting up walls. What people mistake for safety is in fact captivity. And few things thrive in captivity.

Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.

Life is change. If you aren't growing and evolving, you're standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.

But there was no hiding from Conscience. Not in new homes and new cars. In travel. In meditation or frantic activity. In children, in good works. On tiptoes or bended knee. In a big career. Or a small cabin. It would find you. The past always did. Which was why... it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you. And found you... Who wouldn't be afraid of this?