He found Pendergast's cool gaze on him, and he fidgeted. He'd forgotten about those eyes. They made you feel like you had just been stripped of your secrets.

Hubris and science are incompatible.

Once again, we shall have to operate not only outside the box, but outside the room containing the box.

My first job was washing dishes in the basement of a nursing home for $2.10 an hour, and I learned as much about the value of hard work there as I ever did later.

I need to write in a small room - the smaller the better. I can't write in a big room where someone might sneak up behind my back.

One can reach the gates of hell just as easily by short steps as by large.

We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.

The wise and good are outnumbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid.

My hobbies are mountain biking, horseback riding and packing, canoeing and kayaking, hiking, camping, cooking, and skiing.

There are so many journalists out there, I hate to say it, who are lazy and don't do their research - and it shows.

It's a very bad habit, but one I find hard to break.

Life is all about making choices, as in a game of chess. The moves from other side are predetermined against every move of yours. But with each move, you shift your destiny for better or worse.

No, my career as a warrior princess, short as it had been, was over, I thought morosely. Violence only works if you're good at it. Otherwise, it hurts too much.

Anything you can suck at should make you nervous.

My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.

Dear Grandmamma, with what we give. We humbly pray that you may live. For many, many happy years: Although you bore us all to tears.

If you want change, it has to be generational.

Every 13 seconds in America someone uses a gun - not to kill someone, but to stop a crime.

What doesn't kill you is gonna leave a scar.

Anyone who hates something feels threatened by it. A guy who says he hates feminism (a) doesn't understand or know feminism, and (b) is scared of powerful women. Most attacks come from fear.

I'm no longer interested in being in big commercial films.