In my books, women often solve the problem. Even if the woman is not the hero, she's a strong character. She does change the plot. She'll often rescue the male character from some situation.

Without books I would not have become a vivacious reader, and if you are not a reader you are not a writer.

Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.

She loved him because he had brought her back to life. She had been like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and he had drawn her out and shown her that she was a butterfly.

When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.

Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.

The CIA's research program is described in a book called "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate."

Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.

The degradation to which you subject others comes back, sooner or later, to haunt you.

In both cases, weakness and scruples had defeated strength and ruthlessness.

The duck swallows the worm, the fox kills the duck, the men shoot the fox, and the devil hunts the men.

There is no greater hindrance to the progress of thought than an attitude of irritated party-spirit.

What's the best way of communicating in the world today? Television? No. Telegraph? No. Telephone? No. Tell a woman.

Love after divorce is all about showing and sharing with my son what is good and right in life!

At one level inspiration is the ability to see beauty and mystery in everything men and women do.

Was there ever a name more full of purpose than Chicago's? ... spoken as Chicagoans themselves speak it, with a bit of a spit to give heft to its slither, it is gloriously onomatopoetic.

The newest victims of the nation's foreclosure crisis are pets, which is extremely distressing to me.

History happens one person at a time.

I see [my pen] as an extension of my musculature. It's like being a painter. It's the closest I can get to my breath.

I was the editor of the school newspaper and in drama club and choir, so I was not a popular girl in the traditional sense, but I think I was known for being relatively scathing.

We are all role models to someone in this world, and we can all have an impact - for good.