We don't write what we know. We write what we wonder about.

Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.

We write by the light of every story we have ever read.

That meant I could come back whenever I could manage it. And she was telling me to go. She knew the decision was too big a load for me to carry by myself. She knew me through and through. She had eyes in the back of her heart.

Martin Wilson's What They Always Tell Us hears the voices of the young as they struggle toward adulthood.

This is how you hold onto your family. You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own. It's just that simple.

September 11 We thought we'd outdistanced history Told our children it was nowhere near; Even when history struck Columbine, It didn't happen here. We took down the maps in the classroom, And when they were safely furled, We told the young what they wanted to hear, That they were immune from a menacing world. But history isn't a folded-up map, Or an unread textbook tome; Now we know history's a fireman's child Waiting at home alone.