"To be a writer is to connect and to play and to attempt to see clearly and understand. It astounds me regularly that feeling things deeply and writing them down is basically my job description."

"'The Nature of Jade' is about a girl who works with the elephants at the zoo near her home, and who, through her involvement with them, becomes involved with a boy and his baby."

"I was a book lover from the beginning. I loved, love, words and images and ideas, the ways a book can make you feel things deeply or help you understand something you never even knew there were words for."

"You never know how - or when - the idea for a book will appear."

"It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary."

"The ethical implications of AI are as profound as the technological ones."

"Leadership is particularly necessary to ensure ready acceptance of the unfamiliar and that which is contrary to tradition."

"In the end, all we have are the memories and the soundtrack that accompanies them."