In many of my books, I explore the ways in which grandparents or other older persons are shaped by the young, and the young are shaped by the old, in an evolving dance.

Life is like a bowl of spaghetti. Every once in a while, you get a meatball.

What I have since realized is that if people expect you to be brave, sometimes you pretend that you are, even when you are frightened down to your very bones.

Man needs bread and hyacinths: one to feed the body, and one to feed the soul.

You can't keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.

I love the way that each book -- any book -- is its own journey. You open it, and off you go. You are changed in some way, large or small, by having traveled with those characters.

Read a lot, live your life, and listen and watch, so that your mind fills up with millions of images.

Sometimes you know in your heart you love someone, but you have to go away before your head can figure it out.

You know, maybe that's all anybody wants, is to be useful. And have somebody else notice it.

Then I thought, boy, isn't that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad.

A person isn't a bird. You can't cage a person.

I just follow God's lead. One step, one day and one opportunity at a time. The hardest part is not becoming distracted.

A good mustache makes a man for many reasons.

I had no time for Indira Gandhi. She was too much in the Russian camp for my liking.

Barbarity, caprice; these qualities, however nominally disguised, we may universally observe from the ruling character of the deity in all regular religions.

I'm always doubting my work, even when people are kind enough to say good things. I still have a hard time believing I've written some books, let alone that they've actually done pretty well.

[The United States is] founded on the principles of Christianity

The great thing about social movements is everybody gets to be a part of them.

A peaceful man does more good than a learned one.

Religion is against women's rights and women's freedom. In all societies women are oppressed by all religions.

I wanted to make room for antiheroes.