"How quiet everything was this Sunday afternoon, how still. No horse and wagon clopped down the street, no cart; no on…"

"He wrote stories about everything he saw, and he saw a lot. He walked through the streets of Brooklyn along the water…"

"With just the sweep of a pen, Thomas, you can change the world, all of it."

"If only she could have held on to that day, held on to that moment forever, grasped it in her fists so it wouldn't es…"

"Thomas watched him for a few minutes. Pop was good-looking, muscular, and his hair was almost gold even though it was…"

"But that was a realworld, and he didn't have to put it down on paper. He ripped the page out of the book, tore it int…"

""A new start," Pop said as they stopped at the corner and waited to cross over to where te horse and cart waited for …"

"Is there anyone noisier in the world than Bird Mallon?"

"And the boy was right in back of her, his neck thin as a pencil. "My name is Thomas," he said. "Thomas Neary." She di…"

"Everything stopped: forks half raised, a bowl being passed. It seemed that the man was bathed in red, great swaths of…"