I was tired of seeing the Graces always depicted as beautiful young things. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.

Things are strongest where they're broken.

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

Where there is love there is courage, where there is courage there is peace, where there is peace there is God. And when you have God, you have everything.

I had to learn compassion. Had to learn what it felt like to hate, and to forgive and to love and be loved. And to lose people close to me. Had to feel deep loneliness and sorrow. And then I could write.

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

The leaves had fallen from the trees and lay crisp and crackling beneath his feet. Picking one up he marveled, not for the first time, at the perfection of nature where leaves were most beautiful at the very end of their lives.