Because, really, what was worse than lying wide-awake in the dark, watching your life drip away, one irreplaceable minute after another?

Maybe that's what we look for in the people we love, the spark of unhappiness we think we know how to extinguish.

I was writing very early, like I was involved in our high school literary magazine, which was called 'Pariah.' The football team was the Bears, and the literary magazine was 'Pariah.' It was great. It was definitely a real sub-culture. But I wrote stories for them.

After all, what was adult life but one moment of weakness piled on top of another? Most people just fell in line like obedient little children, doing exactly what society expected of them at any given moment, all the while pretending that they’d actually made some sort of choice.

The lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate this."

It felt good, the whole family together on a sunny morning in a wholesome environment. If it hadn't been for the warshiping God part, he would have happily attended church on a regular basis.

My novels are certainly more exciting than my own life.