Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience". "What's pessimism?" I said. "Religion without God.

Life is like a prism. What you see depends on how you turn the glass.

All of us are like locks. No matter how strong the bolt, there’s always a key out there that opens it.

The science of psychotherapy is knowing what to say, the art is knowing when to say it. (36)

The characters emerge from my rather twisted mind. That's another enjoyable part of the job making stuff up.

It didn't feel difficult at the time because I was so charged up about both books. Afterward, however, I was pretty tired. In a good way, like after a great workout.

To trust someone is to take the greatest risk of all. (180)

Therapist’s dilemma: those who need help the most, run the farthest from it.

Just because others have it worse doesn’t mean you have to suffer in silence.

I would never have been a novelist without working as a psychologist...it was a great education in human nature.

Each novel is harder than its predecessor because I must work harder at not repeating myself. However, I enjoy the challenge. This is the greatest job in the world.

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.

Failure is not the end

don't look back, you are not going that way

I am one of a team of Iraqi weapons inspectors currently travelling through the United Kingdom under very difficult conditions searching for weapons of mass distraction.

Thinking that people are supposed to do or be anything other than what they are is like saying that the tree over there should be the sky. I investigated that and found freedom.

I look forward to working out every day.

Definitely, it's a fear of failure that drives me.

People know I'm smart. And people know that, whether it's SNL or Jimmy Kimmel, it's a trend to take the piss out of celebrity -- just as much of a trend as wearing a gray hoodie or driving a Prius.

Every actor I know wants to be a pop star.

I sort of hate the novel when it doesn't push, restlessly, against the tradition and the traditional.