Children, as I have said, use back ways and hidden paths, while adults take roads and official paths.

I like 'pencil-necked weasel'. It has 'pencil' in it. Pencils are good things. You can draw or write things with pencils. I think it's what you call someone when you're worried that using a long word like 'intellectual' may have too many syllables. It's not something that people who have serious, important things to say call other people.

Writing's a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won't rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.

You hurt. It's okay. I hurt too. Hold my hand.

Often you will discover that the harder you work, and the more wisely you work, the luckier you get. But there is luck, and it helps.

You think you're being given all of these things: phones that can communicate with other devices, car service that's better than a taxi, all of these amazing things that are available to you at any time. It isn't until you've swum across the river that you can start to see the negative aspects of it all.

Because there are mysteries. Because there are things that people are forbidden to speak about. Because there are things they do not remember.