It's a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn't felt it, but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake. It makes things vivid.

Even then, at nine years old, I wanted to live inside her body. I wanted to melt into her bones - THAT kind of love.

There was the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.

Imagination, like reality, has its limits.

[Y]ou can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.

Inside I feel much like a 12-year-old or a 17-year-old who knows big words.

But this too is true: stories can save us.