At that moment, the urge to be writing was stronger than any notion she had of what she might write.

The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse.

Wasn't writing a kind of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination?

And though you think the world is at your feet, it can rise up and tread on you.

He knew these last lines by heart and mouthed them now in the darkness. My reason for life. Not living, but life. That was the touch. And she was his reason for life, and why he must survive.

We go on our hands and knees and crawl our way towards the truth

Above all, she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment's thought, and that would take time.

In that shrinking moment he discovered that he had never hated anyone until now. It was a feeling as pure as love, but dispassionate and icily rational.

It wasn't torpor that kept her - she was often restless to the point of irritability. She simply liked to feel that she was prevented from leaving, that she was needed.

He had never before felt so self-consciously young, nor experienced such appetite, such impatience for the story to begin.

Waiting. Simply one person doing nothing, over time, while another approached.

I have never - I have never let go of my childhood contacts. My best friends from childhood are still my best friends.

With science fiction there's endless possibilities.

It's no accident that the church and the graveyard stand side by side. The city of the dead sleeps encircled by the city of the living.

Girls are supposed to dance. That's why god gave them parts that jiggle.

[When asked what was the inspiration for most of her work:] Need of money, dear.

If I do look back, I'll say that I'm blessed. I'm blessed, and I appreciate God for not only letting me live through everything, but to prosper.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

The roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches fruitful.

When you die, that does not mean that you lose to cancer.

Cut the attacker down, to cut them down to their very soul