I have been very lucky: my writing has taken me across the world, and I have seen some extraordinary sites and sights.

It's never too early for ice cream.

Here, you can walk into a bookstore and pick up a Bible or Christian literature and learn. Over there, they are lucky if they have one Bible for a whole village.

Some stories wait their turn to be told, others just tap you on the shoulder and insist you tell them.

Being immortal must have a lot of attractions. You can travel all over the world, see everything, do everything. But what happens if you are immortal and your friends and family are not? You are then destined to watch them age and die.

A boy and a girl, dressed in the T-shirts and denim that are the shabby uniform of this age.

When you've lived as long as I have, nothing much surprises you.