The truth is, it's not a great career move to create a readership and then, in effect, abandon them.

It's one of the strangest attributes of this profession that when we writers get exhausted writing one thing, we relax by writing another.

No one inspired me to write, but writer Harlan Ellison terrified me into getting published.

I knew that I wanted to be a writer even before I knew exactly what being a writer entailed.

I absolutely believe in the power of innovative entrepreneurship on every level. That's why I am exploring ways to improve our education system by making it as effective as a private tutor and as engaging as video games.

My children have gone to Catholic school... Part of their whole education is talking about the inner life and looking at your life, even though you're only 15 or 16 - thinking about your mortality, thinking about the value of your life, thinking about your obligations.

I tell young people to prepare themselves as best they can for a world that grows more challenging every day-get the best education they can, and couple that education with real-life experience in social justice work.

Growing up as a classical musician, you're taught a lot about outreach and about how people aren't being taught music in school. But you don't have to study music to like it. And a lot of the music that people like - be it jazz or rock or opera - is stuff they haven't studied.