Mystery books. I must read a hundred a year. . . I just wish some of them were harder to figure out.

Then there was the whole concept of coal mining, which is a culture unto itself, the most dangerous occupation in the world, and which draws and develops a certain kind of man.

As a novelist, I tell stories and people give me money. Then financial planners tell me stories and I give them money.

The most beautiful women in the world were African.

Of course the biggest mafia in Russia has always been the government; in Soviet times, the Communist Party, and now a circle of former KGB and FSB.

I have another Russian idea, too, with a place and a period, so I guess I have enough to keep me busy for quite some time, especially considering that I'm such a slow writer.

Because normal human activity is worse for nature than the greatest nuclear accident in history.

The great thing about being a writer is that you are always recreating yourself.

I used to be treated like an idiot, now I'm treated like an idiot savant.

I'm very aware when I'm speaking to the English of how flat my Mid-Atlantic American voice is.

Happiness is the maximum agreement of reality and desire.

Some like to believe it's the book that chooses the person.

This may be my only chance to see humans before these two are made into fertilizer for Moonwind's rosebushes.

A legacy is not about what you did while you were there it is what happens when you are gone

My dad gave $3 and a chicken for the first guitar I had.

Rational thought is interpretation according to a scheme which we cannot escape.

When I'm playing guitar, I just try and put those words into lyrics and just try a few things. It's all over the place.

Society is like the air, necessary to breathe but insufficient to live on.

Travelling so much, sometimes my luggage goes astray. But I can get the right stuff sent to me overnight by a special shipper. No big deal.

Sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet.

It's wonderful to work with someone with mentor status.