Never trust the storyteller. Only trust the story.

The problems with success, frankly, are infinitely preferable to the problems of failure.

Growing up, I took so many cues from books. They taught me most of what I knew about what people did, about how to behave. They were my teachers and my advisers.

I always figure there are novels and short stories, and in those, I'm God. No one tells me what to do. I don't have to lose a page, or cut anything, it's just mine. Then there are other things where you're up against realities.

Goodbyes are overrated.

Genre fiction, as Terry Pratchett has pointed out, is a stew. You take stuff out of the pot, you put stuff back. The stew bubbles on.

There's a but, isn't there?" said Coraline. "I can feel it. Like a rain cloud.