Art can make a difference because it pulls people up short. It says, don't accept things for their face value; you don't have to go along with any of this; you can think for yourself.

I like to look at how people work together when they are put into stressful situations, when life stops being cozy.

I don't know how to answer. I know what I think, but words in the head are like voices underwater. They are distorted.

I felt like a seed in a pomegranate. Some say that the pomegranate was the real apple of Eve, fruit of the womb, I would eat my way into perdition to taste you.

Happiness is a specific. Misery is a generalization. People usually know exactly why they are happy. They very rarely know why they are miserable.

Quest is at the heart of what I do-the holy grail, and the terror that you'll never find it, seemed a perfect metaphor for life.

I find pieces of myself everywhere, and I cut myself handling them.

Do you fall in love often?" Yes often. With a view, with a book, with a dog, a cat, with numbers, with friends, with complete strangers, with nothing at all.

I would eat my way into perdition to taste you.

Life cannot be calculated. That's the big mistake our civilization made. We never accepted that randomness is not a mistake in the equation -- it is part of the equation.

Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening.

There are no do-overs in life.

I'm a people's actor, not a critics' actor, and I always have been.

Either this guy really liked me, or I was inventing things in my head because I wanted him to like me. I was much too inexperienced to guess which.

All I like to do is work every day and have an idea what I want to do.

I'm always doubting my work, even when people are kind enough to say good things. I still have a hard time believing I've written some books, let alone that they've actually done pretty well.

You can put in a curl or put on a lip color or mascara, but the important thing is that the health of your skin and hair is shining through.

The conflict in Darfur could escalate to where we're seeing 100,000 victims per month

It's not often a thriller keeps me wound up as well as 'Headhunters' did. I knew I was being manipulated and didn't care. It was a pleasure to see how well it was being done.

Apprentices and servants are characters perfectly distinct: the one receives instruction, the other a stipulated price for his labour.

One of the soundest rules to remember when making forecasts in the field of economics is that whatever is to happen is happening already.