I got ahead from the first rapid, and then just put my head down. I never saw any of he other girls the whole day.

We wanted to come because it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

All that matters in life is forging deep ties of love and family and friends. Writing and reading come later.

Obviously the imagination is fueled by emotions beyond the control of the conscious mind.

Often in gothic novels there's a large house, an estate, and it's symbolic of that culture. Usually it's sort of moldering or rotted or something, and sometimes it's a whole community.

You need so much energy and encouragement to write that if someone says something negative, some of that energy goes.