I'm a craftsman type of teacher. I don't like the thematic type of teaching that takes place in a lot of colleges.

Don't write about a character. Become that character, and then write your story.

Nothing is as important as a likable narrator. Nothing holds a story together better.

You can tell within a sentence if something is fiction or non-fiction. You can tell in the artifice of the language or the care of the construction the difference between art and life.

Art is so personal. I'm very comforted by the fact that certain movies that I love, other people hate. Certain books that I love, other people hate. You can't please everybody.

To have too much time is not good, you have to force yourself. And human beings aren't meant for true freedom. I've learned that, having had it.

Writing a book is like an unknown abyss, every time. Every book is different. Contrary to what unpublished writers think, it's horrible to have a book out.

If you write a page a day in couple months you have a good chunk of the book and then after a year you have almost a book. It's not that...hard.

I think fiction is about small ambition, small failed ambition.

I've written five books, a book every three years. I'm fairly lazy and it doesn't take that much...people who are not lazy are Isaac Asimov.

You're never so alive as after you thought you were going to die.

Truth hides behind the curtain of illusion. We often get lost in illusion and forget to find the truth.

We should get into the habit of reading inspirational books, looking at inspirational pictures, hearing inspirational music, associating with inspirational friends.

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.

People want transparency in government.

I think, what has this day brought me, and what have I given it?

I feel like we as human beings are trampling all over the natural world, but at the same time, we are totally in its power.

When it comes to lingerie, I know what I'm doing.

Seems you can't outsmart Mother Nature.

He is a lyric poet . . . aloof from the swirling currents in which many of his colleagues are immersed.

Characteristics which define beauty are wholeness, harmony and radiance.