Anyone who is going to make anything out of history will, sooner or later, have to do most of the work himself. He will have to read, and consider, and reconsider, and then read some more.

Man is an historical animal, with a deep sense of his own past; and if he cannot integrate the past by a history explicit and true, he will integrate it by a history implicit and false.

I thought my fireplace dead and stirred the ashes. I burned my fingers.

In the country of the story the writer is king.

I will never be a fan of any kind of political correctness: I think it's instant death to creativity.

If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.

There is no more steely barb than that of the Infinite.

There's lots of things that can be solved with cash.

America is not just a democracy, it represents a certain culture of competitive mobility and personality aspirations, politics is not merely a clash of interests, but a clash of dreams.

Music is the brandy of the damned.

To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself.

On our watch, the conversation with a would-be suicide bomber will not begin with the words, 'You have the right to remain silent.'