Nothing, absolutely nothing, was above corruption so long as human beings were involved.

In every thriller written about Washington, particularly after 9/11, there are good guys and there are bad guys, and there's no gray area at all.

Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?

I'm scattered, and then that last hundred pages, bam, I'm a laser.

But if I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything.

It's not the beginning or the destination that counts. It's the ride in between.

Libraries rock! Not a sermon, just a fact. As a kid I was a library rat and books changed my life. They can change yours.

Today might not be so good. But tomorrow, you got another chance to get it right.

Fiction is sort of a way to set the record straight, and let people at least believe that justice can be achieved and the right outcomes can occur.

Two people can care for each other but not want the same things.

When a poor man gives something, that is a sacrifice indeed. When a rich man gives something, it hardly rises to the same level.

We are more curious about the meaning of dreams than about things we see when awake.

If you are going through hell, keep walking until you reach heaven.

Brightly burning passion is the releasing of your essence, your specialness and your gifts to the world.

Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can't even finish my second apple pie.

I'm a huge animal lover - I love animals to death. I've got tortoises and three dogs, and I've had a million animals in the past. I just think that we should do all we can to take care of them.

People are much too solemn about things - I'm all for sticking pins into episcopal behinds.

I take my job very seriously and I work the best that I can on every drum that I hit. I want all the drums and cymbals to sound the best. I strive for perfection and I won't take anything less.

Time and reflection... modify, little by little, our vision, and at last comprehension comes to us.

The most visible symbol in New York is the spirit of a free people.

Shamanism is just show business and philosophy is just a branch of that vaudevillian impulse.