For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.
If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever.
The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.
The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.
Genius disregards the boundaries of propriety. Genius is permitted to shout if shouting is productive.
He was free to enjoy the breathless glee that overwhelmed him: the speed, the clear cold air, the total silence, the feeling of balance and excitement and peace.
Today is declared an unscheduled holiday.
Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored, waiting.
I don’t know what you mean when you say ‘the whole world’ or ’generations before him.’I thought there was only us. I thought there was only now.
Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything.
Ellen had said that her mother was afraid of the ocean, that it was too cold and too big. The sky was, too, thought Annemarie. The whole world was: too cold, too big. And too cruel.
They were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them.
We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.
Then I went home to continue my life, which had changed a little, as lives do every day, inching by microspecks forward toward whatever surprises are coming next.
The fact that I lost my son permeates my being.
So many of my books, I don’t want to say they have messages, but they have important things to say.
I’m not terribly conversant with children’s literature in general. I tend to read books for adults, being an adult.
I was a sidelines child: never class president, never team captain, never the one with the most valentines in my box.
I think of every book as a single entity, and some have later gone on to become a series, often at the request of readers.
Writing is hard work, and fun, and requires you to keep your backside in a chair when you would sometimes like to put it elsewhere. So the only wisdom is the advice to keep at it, I guess.