My children have stolen my dreams in a very literal sense. I've lost months in the minutes and hours that Sabine and Zoey have needed me at night, their thin, butterfly-beating hearts pushed against me in the darkness.

By night, beloved, tie your heart to mine
and let them both in dreams defeat the darkness

There's very little that's comparable to seeing the spark in a student's face when she gets something that she's been struggling with.

I've said many times that there only two things to write about: love and death. And when you have children, you remember that the world is full of sharp corners and dangerous things, and suddenly you have these small, soft creatures, which you love in almost painful way.

If I think of a reader while I am writing, the only reader who really matters for me is my wife. It's most important to me that she likes what I write.

I get very tired of books that feel emotionally empty. I would much rather have writers err on the side of being overly sentimental than not. I think that the perfect balance is a story that moves you without being maudlin, but I don't enjoy books that are empty of emotion and there's no connection to the characters.