If I Am Just Home And Writing,

I Think, Oh My God, Kids Are Reading, And They Care About A Book Enough To Come Over And Talk To Me About A Book That They Care About. If I Think About It As Being A Celebrity, It Would Freak Me Out. But I Just Think, Lucky Me, That I Get To Be A Part Of This Whole Thing.

The Draft That Finally Goes To My Editor Doesn't Get Into Her Hands Until I Have Read It Out Loud Innumerable Times - Sometimes Into A Tape Recorder - To Make Sure That It Sounds Right.

My Favorite Six Letter Word Is Always Because It Promises So Much. My Favorite Five Letter Word Is Never Because It Insists On Contradicting The Promise. My Favorite Four Letter Word Is Once Because It Says It Happened Then. My Favorite Three Letter Word Is Yes Because I’m Just Now Learning To Say It To My Heart. My Favorite Two Letter Word Is If Because It Makes All Things Possible Like This: If Not Always If Not Never Then Once. Yes.

To Me The Book Is Like Having A Kid. I Have To Let It Go Out In The World, And Great Things Will Happen. Maybe They Won't, But It Has To Keep On Moving.

Reader, Do You Think It Is A Terrible Thing To Hope When There Is Really No Reason To Hope At All? Or Is It (as The Soldier Said About Happiness) Something That You Might Just As Well Do, Since,in The End, It Really Makes No Difference To Anyone But You?