I like the fact that kids are willing to be imaginative and go along with me when I'm telling strange tales.

I was lucky enough not to face any required summer reading lists until I went to college. So I still think of summer as the best time to read for fun.

The sudden silence is horrifying, and it seems to catch my mother off guard. A tiny whimper escapes her, the sound amplified in the stillness. Surely, my father hears her now; surely he and I can't go on pretending she isn't crying.

Governments will rise, and governments will fall, and man will do evil to man, and all we can do is turn our hearts to good.

Generally I finish a first draft in 2-6 months, then I set it aside for a while so that when I come back to it I can read it with fresh eyes and figure out how to improve it.

There's something about each of my books that I'm really proud of, and there's something about each of my books that I cringe over.

I wish, peevishly, that he didn't know anything about how soldiers sleep, how they protect their fellow soldiers. It would be nicer if I could share the cloaks warmth with him, if we could lie with our faces together, whispering into the night.