Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang's feeble imagination.

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.

Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.

A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition.

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.

It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another human being, not with the mind, nor even with the heart.

either you take in believing in miracles or you stand still like the hummingbird.

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.

Art is only a means to life, the life more abundant. It merely points the way.

Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything - except his own nature.

Things do not descend upon anything that is not ready to receive them.

Just … isn’t giving up allowed sometimes? Isn’t it okay to say, ‘This really hurts, so I’m going to stop trying’?

Sometimes my plot lines are so convoluted, I get calls from friends at 3 am saying; you SOB, you'll never pull this one off.

I went to college, but I learned to write by reading - and writing.

I'm down with just the Backstreet Boys.

I try to go to the gym three times a week. And I have to watch what I eat. I'm a normal person.

I'm a natural novelist. I'm interested in the person and the group, and how they mesh. And one of the ways I don't want them to mesh is for the person to be subsumed into the group.

I'm just trying to grow. That's one thing I told myself is, 'Don't worry about who people say is the best player'.

Whilst the Bihar calamity damages the body, the calamity brought about by untouchability corrodes the very soul.

Dedication: For librarians and booksellers everywhere, who gather books and build shelters for tender souls.