I grew up in Seattle, but I always knew I wanted to leave.

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.

The status quo was rote memorization and recitation in classrooms thronged with passive children who were sternly disciplined when they expressed individual needs.

My father is a practicing criminal law attorney in the Seattle area.

At one level you're condemned to the voice you have. But within those confines, you have a certain amount of freedom to range among your possible voices.

There are things in this universe that we cannot control, and then there are the things we can. . . . Let fate, coincidence, and accident conspire; human beings must act on reason.

What some people interpret as brooding melancholy is serenity. I don't feel required to grasp all the time.

accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart.

There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left.

It's a brooding melancholy that haunts me.

I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation.

Never give up on your dreams for someone else.'Cos Someday they might leave you but your dreams won't.

Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.

Meanwhile, the Ice Storm was still in development, And that was something I really wanted to do, and frankly I don't think I was ready to do a big production like this.

Kyra Sedgwick told me, 'Keep your heart where your feet are' and that's incredibly difficult to do. It takes a lot of concentration. You've got to be conscientious of each other.

The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary

I am sure, zeal or love for truth can never permit falsehood to be used in the defense of it.

It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.

War is obsolete. We are not here to fight something or tear something down; We are here to be the example of what is possible. Any sane individual will tell you that violence is ... not the way.

the principles of political economy have elevated the working class above the place they ever filled before.

Those who in fact risk all for God will find that they have both lost all and gained all.