Take Time Out. It's not a real vacation if you're reading email or calling in for messages.

Develop a good filing system.

Time must be explicitly managed, like money.

The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.

Whatever news we get about the scans, I’m not going to die when we hear it. I won’t die the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. So today, right now, well this is a wonderful day. And I want you to know how much I’m enjoying it.” I thought about that, and about Jai’s smile. I knew then. That’s the way the rest of my life would need to be lived.

Complaining does not work as a strategy.

I also think my dad would be reminding me that kids — more than anything else — need to know their parents love them. Their parents don't have to be alive for that to happen.