Cities fell. Earth opened. Planets tilted. Stars plummeted. And the awful silence.

I don't think I began to be a professional writer until I learned my weaknesses and what I couldn't do. This forced me to compensate.

Family life was wonderful. The streets were bleak. The playgrounds were bleak. But home was always warm. My mother and father had a great relationship. I always felt 'safe' there.

Affection is one of the most neglected words in the English language, that people throw the word love around like confetti when they mean affection.

You seldom get a censorship attempt from a 14-year-old boy. It's the adults who get upset.

He was intrigued by the power of words, not the literary words that filled the books in the library but the sharp, staccato words that went into the writing of news stories. Words that went for the jugular. Active verbs that danced and raced on the page.

I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind. I don't think about how old they are.