I had a glorious father, I had no father at all.

God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one's own Trojan horse.

The main difference between men and women is that men are lunatics and women are idiots.

There is no logical reason why the camel of great art should pass through the needle of mob intelligence.

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.

All men should have a drop of treason in their veins, if nations are not to go soft like so many sleepy pears.

The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.

The mind is its own enemy, that fights itself with the innumerable pliant and ineluctable arms of the octopus.

Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a person's mind.

The only faithful tradition is change.

the most painful thing is when you are drowning deep inside you and there is not a single hand to pull you out

If you train your mind to search for the positive things about other people, you will be surprised at how many good things you can observe in them and comment upon.

We should not seek to confirm God's will by the absence of adversity.

Yet sometimes being a friend meant letting people do things that hurt, like putting distance between you, just because it made them happy.

At the end, killing is killing. Massacring is massacring.

We should always be learning or we will cease to be able to change or adapt. I think the best work on leadership today is by Ronald Heifetz. His work is focused on adaptive leadership.

We sent out tapes to the others but they didn't wake up. It was worth it just to have one kid wake up. I got to meet him after he woke up.

Anybody's position on an issue, anything they've said about an issue, and any way they've voted on an issue is fair game. You have every right to question that and go after it aggressively.

Many of my works fall into the category of "Zeitgeist novels." Yet I hope that they aren't only reportage, but also attempts to convey the sense of the present to the future.