The gym cat appears to those who will die. He is our totem." This thought came to me a few weeks ago. I shared it with no one of course.

I should say, one of the things about being a widow or a widower, you really, really need a sense of humor, because everything's going to fall apart.

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.