I think that fiction has this special responsibility or this special ability to help people to empathize, to demand of people that they understand other individuals and other people's experiences.

A pool of melancholy blooms in my chest and rushes into my body like deep-blue blood.

It must be that there is something in the hearts of human beings, some natural fluid perhaps, that insists on happiness, even confronted with the most powerful arguments against it.

There is little novelty in the detective who cannot solve himself.

Fiction has this special power. It has a power to clarify, to galvanize, to prophesy, and warn.

In terms of optimism, I am optimistic. I do think that, in the long term, that America will right itself. I have to think so.

History is not the linear sort of movement toward better and better things.

I think that one thing fiction can offer, and must offer, is a place where someone's mind and their imagination can come to rest for a little while.

Our political divides have become our personal divides.

One thing that fiction does is it allows us to take big picture questions, big issues, big moral and socio-political changes and see how they play out on real people's lives, with real individuals.

I'm not a slave, man. I just gotta sign out, say where I'm going, what time I'll be back and then I gotta sign back in.

Theory-the seeing of patterns, showing the forest as well as the trees

I’m not paralyzed by fear about what might have been or what might be. I’m grateful for what is and I make excellent use of what I’ve got.

Fly without wings; Dream with open eyes; See in darkness.

The reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the soul.

Clarity is the most important thing to me - in thinking - and so I try in the books to be as clear as possible.

The permanency of most friendships depends upon the continuity of good fortune.

To tell a strong story with real taste of an epic tragedy needs great actors.

As a matter of fact, Latin America's economy is almost as big as the economy of China. We're all focused on China. Latin America is a huge opportunity for America - time zone, language opportunities.

Daddy wasn't there for me, so I had to grind every day.

I relate to all of my songs and I'm inspired by everything going on around me. Music comes from all different aspects of my life.