Cinders patter, falling with the snow. We creep infinitesimally northward through the dirty chaos of a world in the process of making itself. Praise then Creation unfinished!

A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.

Truth is a matter of the imagination.

I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.

The king was pregnant.

At the pit's bottom is no anger.

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.

But it doesn't take a thousand men to open a door, my lord.""It might to keep it open.

Of course there is no veneer, the process is one of growth, and primitiveness and civilization are degrees of the same thing. If civilization has an opposite, it is war.

Why are my sons followed thus by darkness?'...'Because they were born in the house of flesh, therefore death follows at their heels.

I don't write fantasy

Every story has a time to be told

Sometimes, if you have faith in people they'll surprise you. Mom and Dad taught me that. Risk is the price of believing most people want to be good.

I always read poetry before I write, to sensitize me to the rhythms and music of language.

Listen to the way people talk. If your characters sound real the rest is easy.

I wish I could be attracted to unattractive women. They're just more interesting.

When we sin and mess up our lives, we find that God doesn't go off and leave us- he enters into our trouble and saves us.

For example, you go to Fuji, and there are no animal attacks. Why? And I think that gets you into the world of "The Walking Dead" or "Lost." Humans start doing some weird stuff.

And I think Governor Romney has a shot if the 'R' next to his name doesn't just stand for 'Republican,' it stands for 'reformer.

in the presence of extraordinary actuality, consciousness takes the place of imagination.