And kissed her for a hundred and sixty-nine years.

Fred Astaire is my hero. I love him because he was willing to kill himself to make his art look effortless. And because he proved it's possible to be an artist and a good person.

I learned everything I know about plot from Dame Agatha (Christie).

I have never written anything in one draft, not even a grocery list, although I have heard from friends that this is actually possible.

And every place and time an author writes about is imaginary, from Oz to Raymond Chandler's L.A. to Dickens's London.

It is my belief that everything you need to know about the world can be learned in a church choir.

Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?

I have great faith in the future of books - no matter what form they may take - and of science fiction.

Science fiction is an amazing literature: plot elements that you would think would be completely worn out by now keep changing into surprising new forms.

To do something for someone or something you loved-England or Shakespeare or a dog or the Hodbins or history-wasn't a sacrifice at all. Even if it cost you your freedom, your life, your youth.

Writers are too neurotic to ever be happy.

If you want to be wise, learn wisdom from nature.

Do what other successful people are doing, that is how you can be brilliant.

A shepherd may like to travel, but he should never forget his sheep.

Tell your secrets. [In reply to the question "How does one become a prophet?"]

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor; the enemy of the people. It will keep you insane your whole life.

I've read stories that are set in a celebrity's house, and you know where it is and what it looks like and what's inside it, and that's not something I want anyone to know.

But I still had to tell myself, Keep looking up. I will tell you, he isnt Superman for nothing.

The difference of somebody of winning and losing, has nothing to do with their genetics, has nothing to do with their potential.

Sometimes you think the whole world is falling, and it's only yourself that's leaning.

When any one tells you that he belongs to no party, you may at any rate be sure that he does not belong to yours.