Logic is a wonderful invention. It is so wonderful, people often mistake it for reason. Reason, however, requires sense. Logic requires only consistency.

In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned.

You've either got to find a way to make your continuing characters interesting without making them maudlin or overwrought, or you've got to put more emphasis on the suspects.

Everybody is a True Believer. Everybody has a little nugget they're convinced of that is the opposite of the nugget on the other side. And they're convinced it's fact.

Knowledge pursued for its own sake - that's the definition of education, as opposed to training.

I was the executive editor on a little magazine called Greek Accent, whose only claim to fame is that its art director went on to be the art director of Discover for many years.

Nobody in real life ever takes me seriously.

I don't make my own schedule - it's constructed around my sons' school schedules.

Listen to advice. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least half the audience fights all the conventions of the field.

I've been a teacher at the college level, in composition mostly, and I've been an editor on magazines.

People always seemed to know half of history, and to get it confused with the other half.

I think that if you're just a good person, you work hard, you say "yes," and you are driven, you will eventually work your way to the top. At least that's how it's been for me.

Salvation happens every time someone with a key uses it to open a door he could lock instead.

Little dogs bite more than big dogs but they get away with it.

You doubt because you love truth.

If you steal from one person is Theft, and if you steal from Lots of people is Research

The ends justify the means mindset has been the impetus behind many a cruel medical or social experiment.

I don't go against the grain because I'm a contrary person.

The most fertile source of insight is hindsight.

"It's gonna be okay," I said. It was the first time in a long time that I believed it. "It will."

Reality in strong doses frightens.