She was the storm, she was the lightning, she was the adult world with all its power and all its secrets and all its foolish casual cruelty.

We writers – and especially writers for children, but all writers – have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were – to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.

There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.

There are a number of paths that lead to this place. I have been avoiding them for some small time, now.

If people are standing up there saying, my football team just won with help from God, then obviously God just pissed over the other team.

Do not lose hope — what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story. (from 'Instructions')

I was one of those kids who had books on them. Before weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, funerals and anything else where you're actually meant to not be reading, my family would frisk me and take the book away. If they didn't find it by this point in the procedure, I would be sitting over in that corner completely unnoticed just reading my book.