One of the hardest things for me, now that I'm famous, is finding people who can read my stuff and give me an honest critique.

Without books I would not have become a vivacious reader, and if you are not a reader you are not a writer.

Why do you have to be the same as the others? ...Most of them are stupid.

She loved him because he had brought her back to life. She had been like a caterpillar in a cocoon, and he had drawn her out and shown her that she was a butterfly.

When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.

Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.

The CIA's research program is described in a book called "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate."

Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.

The degradation to which you subject others comes back, sooner or later, to haunt you.

In my books, women often solve the problem. Even if the woman is not the hero, she's a strong character. She does change the plot. She'll often rescue the male character from some situation.

In both cases, weakness and scruples had defeated strength and ruthlessness.

Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.

I'm like everybody: I gain the Christmas 10 or so, and then I try to exercise more and dial it back.

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

I thought, If I'm an ancestor and grandmother when I'm twenty-five, I should go peacefully to the real time when I'm an ancestor and a grandmother.

For you teach very clearly by your behaviour how slowly and how meagerly our senses proceed in the investigation of ever inexhaustible nature.

Memories and possibilities are even more hideous than realities.

Racism is a learned affliction and anything that is learned can be unlearned

We have to get rid of excuses, no matter why you are the way you are, don't let it be an excuse to stay that way.

Give a child enough rope and he will trip you up.

I was valedictorian. Did I enjoy going to school? I hated it. It wasn't a choice on my part, it was expected.