I like to think I'm positive and optimistic about things generally, but what I write does tend towards the darker end of the spectrum.

Voyaging great distances -- through forests, from island to island, across plains and into the mountains -- is all about finding ourselves.

The reaction to death is sometimes as violent as death itself. Shock throws a cautious coolness over your senses, but your stomach still has knots, your skin stings as if the Reaper is glaring at you as well.

Growing up closes so many doors. The modern world doesn't allow for miracles, so we don't see them. It's a very precious gift, an open mind, but it's not passive. You've got to nurture it like a bed of roses; otherwise it will wither and die. Make sure you don't close off your mind to things you find strange. Sometimes they may be the only truth.

Humans crave knowledge, and when that craving ends, we are no longer human.

Love is harsh, and it consumes. And more than anything, it demands sacrifice.

I tend to believe that computers are drawing kids -- and adults -- away from reading purely because they provide an alternative, vast source of spare-time amusement and entertainment. I recently heard a frightening statistic: there are less than one million true readers in this country (those who read every day instead of one book per year on a beach). Terrifying.