My family was all police and hard hats at the refineries; they didn't know what to think about me. So I became a closet writer.

My fiction is almost always inspired by a character's need or desire to rise above him- or herself. No one is perfect and some of us have much adversity in our lives; it is those people who struggle to rise above their nature or background that I find the most interesting and heroic.

L.A.'s magic has let me see every level of the dream.

It's easy to sound good. All you do is leave in the parts where you act tough and forget the parts where you get shoved around.

Adults always wonder what to say and how to say it when they're talking to a child. You want to be wise, but all you are is a child yourself in a larger body. Nothing is ever what it seems. The things that you think you know are never certain. I know that now. I wish that I didn't, but I do.

If my vision was good enough, I'd be an astronaut.

Lucy took a single plain donut from the bag and held it for me to take a bite. Tender and light and still warm from the frying. Not too sugary.