Writing is storytelling. No matter how you slice it, you're saying, 'Once upon a time.' That's what writing is all about.

The first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my hands through granite. My other image is pushing a train up the mountain, and it's icy, and I'm in bare feet.

Happines is like mercury. Hard to hold, and when we drop it, it shatters into a million pieces. Maybe the bravest of all are those who have the courage to reach for it again.

I certainly understand very much what it's (like when) an expense comes up and you're trying to figure out how to pay for it.

I am a natural optimist but there were times when (it seemed like) I was doing nothing but adding up on the back of envelope what I had to pay this month.

Approach your lives as if they were novels, with their own heroes, villains, red herrings, and triumphs.

Writing is storytelling. No matter how you slice it, you're saying, 'Once upon a time.' That's what writing is all about.