For all their current prestige Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers are still regarded in all but the most desperate districts of Gaza or Peshawar as romantics with little chance of more than symbolic victories however bloody and brutal. That gives both the Middle East and the West a small and distant hope of security.

I am very lucky that I get to tell stories for a living. I love being able to grab people's attention to keep them turning the pages to make them stay awake all night. I want to stir the pulse yes but also to stir the heart. I hope 'The Woods' does that.

As long as we can tell stories about our ability to survive the more we will hope not self-destruct.

I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you and that you will work them water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom till you yourself burst into bloom.

I can remember being home from school with tonsillitis and writing stories in bed to pass the time.

How do you make any sense of history art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions?

For at the same time many people seem eager to extend the circle of our moral consideration to animals in our factory farms and laboratories we are inflicting more suffering on more animals than at any time in history.

Storytelling in general is a communal act. Throughout human history people would gather around whether by the fire or at a tavern and tell stories. One person would chime in then another maybe someone would repeat a story they heard already but with a different spin. It's a collective process.

If history were taught in the form of stories it would never be forgotten.

Whether in chains or in laurels liberty knows nothing but victories.