And in real life endings aren't always neat, whether they're happy endings, or whether they're sad endings.

Guys like Henry and his buddies were an accident waiting to happen; the little kids' version of floods or tornadoes or gallstones.

Love isn't soft, like the poets say. Love has teeth which bite and the wounds never close.

When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.

I still think that of all the people doing top fiction today, John D. MacDonald is the best.He was my model as a kid. If there are people out there that want to write, all you need to do is read 20 of his stories to get an idea what it takes to make a story kick over.

She nods. You're good for the ones you love. You want to be good for the ones you love, because you know that your time with them will end up being too short, no matter how long it is.

Drive away and try to keep smiling. Get a little rock and roll on the radio and go toward life with all the courage you can find and all the belief you can muster. Be true, be brave, stand.