I can write with a crying child on my lap. I have. Often.

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.

(The golden goose has died, my prince turned into a frog, the Kingdom is lost, everyone has turned into stone and I am locked in the tower)

We must, therefore, be here as strangers and pilgrims, that we may plainly declare that we seek a city above.

It's good to always do some sort of exercise.

You know, if you're an American and you're born at this time in history especially, you're lucky. We all are. We won the world history Powerball lottery...

I don't care what other people's judgments come down to-I care what my judgments come down to.

Look in every city or any town. Travel by foot, or train or plane. Do not settle until there is love. For there, there will be the address of your happiness.

Practice makes the master.

To know that there's a good chance that this is something that could potentially be around well after I leave this planet... it's a good feeling.

Lord, teach us to step outside ourselves. Teach us to go out into the streets and manifest your love.

Non-reaction is a language that everyone understands. It communicates to the offender and causes him to be upset with the upset that he intended for you.