I created a character whose motives were pure and good and she was going to go out and save the whole world. But the truth is, you can't save the whole world, but you can save one. And that was the whole thrust of the novel - to save just one.

I wanted to write about the third world and had the opportunity to go live in the trenches, so to speak.

I think that hurting gives us a way to measure being happy. How can you know one without knowing the other.

I have always been amazed guys read my books and seem to enjoy them. Because I've raised boys, I like to think I can get inside a guy's mind. I try and make the boys talk like guys, sound like guys and react like guys.

None of us truly knows what we'll do when the circumstances become so overwhelming and complex that we can't even tell right from wrong.

I'll cover you in flowers someday, Julie-girl.

People can't help the way they look, just the way they act.