I don't separate my books into historical novels and the rest. To me, they're all made-up worlds, and both kinds are borne out of curiosity, some investigation into the past.

To know you will be lonely is not the same as being lonely.

People do not love those whose eyes show that they are somewhere else

The declared meaning of a spoken sentence is only its overcoat, and the real meaning lies underneath its scarves and buttons.

I have never begun a novel which wasn't going to stretch me further than I had ever stretched before.

I'm interested in where we are, where we're going, where we've come from.

Swimming always cleans your soul

It's like standing on the edge of a cliff. This is especially true of the first draft. Every day you're making up the earth you're going to stand on.

Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

Nostalgia is something we think of as fuzzy. But it's pain. Pain concerning the past.

My greatest pleasure is to invent. My continual mad ambition is to make something true and beautiful that never existed in the world before.

If life is a magnificent journey, then peace is the way and happiness is the destination.

It is time to change the paradigm of the church and of every Christian.

Dependence on drugs is not a disease, it is not a virus, it is not something that stalks only the dregs of society. Drug addiction is REALIZED EMOTIONAL DEFICIENCY SYNDROME.

There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.

Growing old is not growing up.

I'm going to prove the haters and doubters wrong. I like when the doubters try to say that I'm (not still) elite or that I'm too old. I'll use that.

Tibet is a beautiful and richly endowed region of our great motherland.

With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60.

This is not your father's marketing. Instead of "do it right no matter what", search marketing demands that you "do it wrong quickly and then fix it".

Most little children's obsessions are robots and Barbie dolls. My obsession as a kid was the Versace house. I used to save up my pocket money to buy Versus shirts. I was that obsessed!