But it is worth noting that to be good at something is not quite the same as loving it. - Gabrielle Zevin

Methinks I have grown soft in my middle age. But me-also-thinks my latter-day reaction speaks to the necessity of encountering stories at precisely the right time in our lives. Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life. —

Death is a state of mind — -many people on Earth spend their entire lives dead.

A.J. has never changed a diaper in his life, though he is a modestly skilled gift wrapper.