There was a girl who could fly, a boy who had bees living inside him, a brother and sister who could lift boulders over their heads.

When someone won't let you in, eventually you stop knocking.

Every snapshot collector has obsessions. Some only collect photos of cars. Others like World War II, or babies, or old-timey girls in old-timey swimsuits. I happen to collect the weird stuff: photos that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up a little. The uncanny.

I grew up feeling like a weirdo like many kids do. But I was lucky to find my own home for peculiar children. I went to a school for the gifted in Florida, and it was full of kids who - we were all strange together. And that was a real blessing.

Do you ever find yourself climbing into an open grave during a bombing raid and wish you'd just stayed in bed?

I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.

My portal to another world was fiction.