There's this thing, they have in french: L'espirit d'escalier. The spirit of the stairway. I don't think we have a word for it in English. It means, well, the clever things to say that you only think to yourself when you're on the way out.

I kept starting 'Anansi Boys' as a movie and stopping, and eventually wrote the novel and was happy.

I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.

Have you ever had one of those days when something just seems to be trying to tell you somebody?

I'm bored," she said. "Learn how to tap-dance," he suggested, without turning around.

Books are defensive, not offensive (unless you're the puzzled adult trying to make the kid with the book interact).

Real life doesn't have to be convincing, but fiction does.