Especially with four insanely angry, sword-carrying pirates bearing down on you, followed closely by an alien with a genetic malfunction that posed like Elvis Presley and looked slightly like a cross between a koala and a cuddly dog.

The boys had asked why, if it acted slowly, was it called quicksand. The Mollusks had replied that, as far as they were concerned, most English names for things were silly. The word that they used for quicksand was a deep grunt that translated roughly to "uh-oh.

You will leave now," said Grdankl the Strong. "Go! Do not be afraid! If you die, it is okay!

When I do things I shouldn't do, my mother says I need a new pair of glasses -- that I should be be looking differently at the choices I make.

There's a fine line between imagination and reality. An inventor dreams something up, and pretty soon, it's there on the table before him. A science-fiction writer envisions another world, and then some space probe finds it. If you believe in something strongly enough, I think you can make it happen.

What do you care more about? The kids or your hair?

The way you get better is putting words on the page and getting them behind you.