Life scars us with its random motion, he thought. Only death is perfect.

And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death.

Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don't stand a chance against it.

The ecosystem of our world is a closed system: it would run out of gas, collapse of its own weight.

Throughout the ages, stories with certain basic themes have recurred over and over, in widely disparate cultures; emerging like the goddess Venus from the sea of our unconscious.

For every path you choose, there is another you must abandon, usually forever.

Studying anthropology, I developed a kind of holistic view of human existence, in which the dichotomies you listed are all necessary and vital aspects of life.

Archaeology is the anthropology of the past, and science fiction is the anthropology of the future.

Here was a fragment of Goddess myth that, through all its permutations, had somehow escaped being turned on its head. It was the perfect springboard for the sort of novel I wanted to write.

But our society does not grant nontraditional forms of intelligence equal recognition, no matter how much it would help us get along or truly enrich our lives.

I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

A revived spirit, a renewed soul.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way but must accept his lot calmly even if they roll a few more upon it.

The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.

My father was a diplomatic officer. As a diplomat's daughter, you have to learn to present yourself very early on.

Some of my friends who know me best say they wouldn't trade places with me for $1 million because of the pace I lead.

Life offers us tickets to places which we have not knowingly asked for.

Each time a high-wage job is lost, a family is turned upside down. And that affects the communities where they live.

I think humor and terror are very closely related.

If I'm in something funny, I like to try and find some kind of serious line in it that people can relate to.