You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair ... Come to it any way but lightly.

Kindle, isn’t it?” the waitress asked. “I got one for Christmas, and I love it. I’m reading my way through all of Jodi Picoult’s books.” “Oh, probably not all of them,” Wesley said. “Huh? Why not?” “She’s probably got another one done already. That’s all I meant.” “And James Patterson’s probably written one since he got up this morning!” she said, and went off chortling.

You cannot friend a hawk, they said, unless you are a hawk yourself, alone and only a sojourner in the land, without friends or the need of them.

It was the kiss by which all the others of his life would be judged and found wanting.

What if I fall?', Tim cried. Maerlyn laughed. 'Sooner or later, we all do.

It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.

At the time we’re stuck in it, like hostages locked in a Turkish bath, high school seems the most serious business in the world to just about all of us. It’s not until the second or third class reunion that we start realizing how absurd the whole thing was.