(Chappell) has been showing me some new things. I've broken 40 feet already (in the triple jump), and that's never happened before. ... I have a hurdles coach and a high jump coach as well. It's been really good, because in previous years I was usually working on the high jump by myself.

I'm tired of seeing the county neglect us. I'm a little bit angry.

I love this country. You can't lie about saying you don't love this country. This country is the best I'll ever be in. This country is beautiful.

In the end, all worlds, whether they're set in the future or in New Jersey of today, are fictions. Sure, you don't got to do too much work to build a mundane world, but don't get it twisted: you still got to do some work.

There are a couple of strategies for writing about an absence or writing about a loss. One can create the person that was lost, develop the character of the fiancee. There's another strategy that one can employ, maybe riskier... Make the reader suffer the loss of the character in a more literal way.

I was a tough kid with the jeans, the concert shirt with the flannel over it, the comb in the back pocket and the feathered hair.