He made me think of all the books I hadn't read, and all the ones I'd read but hadn't fully understood.

A screenwriter heard me read from my novel 'The Wishbones' when it was still in progress and mentioned me to some producers in Hollywood. They called, and I told them I had a novel in my drawer about a high school election that goes haywire. They asked to take a look, and my life changed pretty dramatically as a result.

I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years.

Back then, when everybody thought the world would last forever, nobody had time for anything.

As for writing about temptation, there's no drama without temptation, and no novel without drama.

I did a lot of reading of the Bible and became fascinated with the idea of the Rapture. It's pretty wild. I hadn't heard of it until I was in college.

Sooner or later we all lose our loved ones. We all have to suffer, every last one of us.