I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself

My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Aunt Frances

Others said May was best, that sweet green time when lilacs bloomed and gardens along Main Street were filled with sugary pink peonies and Dutch tulips.

It was a great escape for me and it was a way to take a break from what was going on in my own world, to go into another world.

Be careful what you wish for. I know that for a fact. Wishes are brutal, unforgiving things. They burn your tongue the moment they're spoken and you can never take them back.

I wonder how a lioness will manage in a dovecote. Can you put away your teeth and claws?

The weak are cruel. The strong have no need to be.

Once you know some things, you can't unknow them. It's a burden that can never be given away.

This was what it meant to be human, to know that time moved and all things changed.

No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.

The evening had turned sweet and blue.

The thing about plummetting downhill at fifty miles an hour on a snack platter - if you realize it's a bad idea when you're halfway down, it's too late.

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.

He was so good at everything he did. You can't call Ronnie Barker a comedian. He was an actor, and a great writer.

The point is that you can't be too greedy.

You can only coax someone into the vortex from in the vortex.

I've always had confidence.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter - but beautiful - struggle for a new world.

If you do not find peace inside your own heart, then you will not find it anywhere else on earth.

It would be disastrous if bad planning policy meant that today's new developments become tomorrow's climate slums

Writing a book is an adventure.