I'm a hypocrite, of course, and I live with that, but I live.

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.

Difficult times are ways to know and understand yourself and others in a better way. (From 'Voyage to Happiness')

There is no shame in being illiterate. One need only feel ashamed when one denies the opportunity to learn.

I was the least Pop of all the Pop artists.

What is common sense? That which attracts the least opposition that which brings most agreeable and worthy results.

To promote laughter without joining in it greatly heightens the effect.

Most people have never known solitude.... But there are a few of the other kind who can go back to their rooms anywhere and close the door on the whole world, and feel that they need never emerge.

If it had not been for the English I should have been emperor of the East, but wherever there is water to float a ship we are sure to find them in our way.

Fresh dress, like a million bucks, Put on the bally shoes and the fly green socks

I don't mind being artificial sometimes, because I like veiling myself. I mean, I'm not honest or sincere: I am self-centered and narcissistic. I just want to be this entity.