I do not laugh

To paraphrase Muggeridge: Everything is a parable that God is speaking to us, the art of life is to get the message.

For some reason, people think I am this terrible person and it really hurts me to hear that. I am just doing the best I know how to.

My mother, who was quite sharp when I was young, became utterly mild.

It is the brushwork of the right value and color which should produce the drawing.

It has been my observation and experience, and that of my family, that nothing human works out well.

I'm a fantasy writer. I don't do SF. This is important to me. If you're not clear on what genre you're in, everything gets muddled, and it's hard to know which rules you're breaking.

Know the function of a fuse box and the appearance of a tripped circuit breaker.

Darkness cannot be overcome with more darkness, only with light. Violence cannot be overcome with more violence, only with peace.

There's this whole sense of judgment and who's right and who's wrong and who's moral and who's going to be punished.

Sometimes speech is no more than a device for saying nothing - and a neater one than silence.