A young reader sent me the above rendering of Mr. Spiro's philosophy of life – "the quartering of the soul" from PAPERBOY. I love it when readers – young or old – make a deep dive into a book, any book. There are the words on the page and then there are the thoughts...

I don’t remember the date when Willie first joined me at the foot of my writing desk, but I know he was less than a year old. My writing routine, born out of working many years at afternoon newspapers, began around 3:30 in the morning. I would climb out of bed, make a...

One of the delights of having your books published in other countries is to attempt to assess how it is being received by non-English speaking readers. Of the dozen or so countries that have published my works, perhaps the most interesting responses have come from...