It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that.

Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.

Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.

You write because you have an idea in your mind that feels so genuine, so important, so true. And yet, by the time this idea passes through the different filters of your mind, and into your hand, and onto the page or computer screen - it becomes distorted, and it's been diminished.

I don't remember how I picked up 'Different Seasons,' but it was a book I read on a grave shift. I was absolutely floored by it; 'The Body,' a story about kids who go searching for a corpse in the woods, impacted me especially.

I felt on the periphery of high school culture; one of those invisible creatures that walk the campus. I think it was a lot worse for my parents.