Becoming a writer is a polite way of saying you've chosen alcoholism as a career.

Commercial fiction writing – where my bread is buttered – is fairly straightforward. The writing is simply efficiency and story. The more you have of one the less you need of the other.

Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind.

Don’t give up on yourself. Be strong!

It would be better if you began to teach others only after you yourself have learned something.

You will be able to appreciate the influence of such an Engine on the future progress of science. I live in a country which is incapable of estimating it.

If you round out your edges, you lose your edge.

The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you.

You don't need a reason to be nice to someone.

The only time a relationship is good is when you really love them.

I'm really open to just about anything but I think the real dream is to be able to write my own thing.

If you don't remember childhood and you idealize it, you can't write books for kids because they're not real. Kids pick that up.