I wept my way through teaching practice.

Most of my central characters lack confidence but overcome their timidity or low self-esteem to win through in the end, so I suppose there is a kind of wish-fulfillment at work.

[Peter Pan] has never broken his terrible habit of eavesdropping. So, maybe that wasn't the rustle of pages you heard while this story lasted, but Peter Pan himself, listening in. In exchanged for a story of yours, he might show you his most prized possession: James Hooks' map of Neverland.

In exchange for a smile, he may show you Neverland itself.

I clean forgot Barrie's ghost might be reading the computer screen over my shoulder -- forgot to worry whether the necessary people (hospital trustees) would like what I wrote.

[It is an] astonishingly daunting privilege.

I still keep thinking someone will penetrate my guilty secret - that I have been masquerading as a writer all these years while all I was really doing was enjoying myself, pursuing my passion.