“Whenever I've been stuck on a project, it's always brought me solace to the return to books that moved me in the past. It's a nice way to get outside my own head; and it brings me back to one of the most important reasons I write at all: to bring some pleasure to readers, to make them think or feel.”

“If you let a bully come in your front yard, he'll be on your porch the next day and the day after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed.”