But protagonists are protagonists and heroes are heroes.

In every thriller written about Washington, particularly after 9/11, there are good guys and there are bad guys, and there's no gray area at all.

Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?

I'm scattered, and then that last hundred pages, bam, I'm a laser.

But if I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything.

It's not the beginning or the destination that counts. It's the ride in between.

Libraries rock! Not a sermon, just a fact. As a kid I was a library rat and books changed my life. They can change yours.

Today might not be so good. But tomorrow, you got another chance to get it right.

Fiction is sort of a way to set the record straight, and let people at least believe that justice can be achieved and the right outcomes can occur.

Two people can care for each other but not want the same things.

When a poor man gives something, that is a sacrifice indeed. When a rich man gives something, it hardly rises to the same level.

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.

I think happy thoughts and feel happy things and I do not let myself near the swirling black edges of the hole that is my soul when I look at them.

Not once or twice in our rough island story The path of duty was the way to glory.

Knowledge of the sciences is so much smoke apart from the heavenly science of Christ.

Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence.

I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change...I'm changing the things I cannot accept.

Woo! It's so cold, I think we may be twin sisters now," he said through rattling teeth.

The church has been planted as a paradise in this world.

The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society. ... There is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.

Do not rely on unplanned music; it comes out as though it were planned, but planned by someone you cross the street to avoid.