In a way, the characters often do take over.

Every writer has to find their own way into writing.

People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing's as eternal as the dishes.

New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications.

I don't want to die, really. I'm interested in what happens next, so I've got to keep on.

When you are reading, someone has done a lot of work on your behalf, someone has had ideas and has then written and corrected and improved them so that they can be shared.

By the time ordinary life asserted itself once more, I would feel I had already lived for a while in some other lifetime, that I had even taken over someone else's life.

Will you still love me when I'm a monster?

At this stage I am not involved with young adults as closely as many other writers. My children are grown up and my grandchildren are still quite young.

I've never actually been a fighter myself - fighting tires me out and I'm not an efficient fighter anyway - but I have certainly seen other people have great complicated goes at one another.

I hope I am not too repetitive. However, coming to terms with death is part of the general human situation.

Freedom and order are not incompatible... truth is strength... free discussion is the very life of truth.

I'm happy to report that my inner child is still ageless.

The American dream always meant that anybody willing to put in a hard day's work could make a decent living. That's just not true anymore for people without at least some post-high school education.

I do enjoy reading some science fiction.

I love the freedom of writing and then I love the realization of directing. I can't favor one or the other. I enjoy both parts of the process.

That sums up why it's crazy to meet Paul McCartney because he's the type of n - - that needs that.

The mere attempt to examine my own confusion would consume volumes.

I'm really, really worried about the Trump team, and I want people on the team who I think are adults who have judgment and won't do anything stupid.

We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.

The key, of course, is to stay away from the losing years.