Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing.

A pitcher needs two pitches, one they're looking for and one to cross them up.

What is life, after all, but a challenge? And what better challenge can there be than the one between the pitcher and the hitter.

I'm probably the only guy who worked for (Casey) Stengel before and after he was a genius.

Gentlemen, for the first 60 feet that was a hell of a pitch.

You don't just throw the ball - you propel it.

When I throw a ground ball, I expect it to be an out, maybe two.

A good hitter has timing. A good pitcher upsets timing.

Twenty games is the magic figure for pitchers - .300 is the magic figures for batters. It pays off in salary and reputation. And those are the two things that keep a ballplayer in business.

I'll never forgive myself. We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I'd only struck him out.

Home plate is 17 inches wide, but I ignore the middle 12 inches. I pitch to the two-and-a-half inches on each side.

How transcendent is the virtue of the middle conduct! Rare for a long time has been its practice among the people.

My fiction is only just over the horizon. I present a world that's different but it's familiar enough that it freaks people out a little.

The best tip for writing is just to write; to sit down and write, to begin doing it and not to be scared by the blank page.

The devil's most devilish when respectable.

A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life.

I won't make shorthand films, because I don't want to manipulate audiences into assuming quick, manufactured truths.

Freeing Your Child from Anxiety is an excellent book, one of the best of its kind.

As the father of six children, I want to know that when my wife or I drop our kids off at school they will be safe from predators, crime and violence.

Literary prizes serve a purpose if they allow for discussion of books.

My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.