Our subconscious works in metaphors, stories, and word play. That's why a particular story or movie may mean more to some people than to others. Have you considered why you quest for this tale now?

Like Elmore Leonard and Donald Westlake and Robert B. Parker and oh so many others, I want to die with my boots on, facedown on my keyboard if possible, in the middle of a sentence.

Perhaps true faith is a form of insanity.

The only way to build a fan base is to have a lot of material out there for readers to find. You can't manufacture a fan base. You create it, one story at a time.

The worst situations in the world always start with the words, 'trust me.'

I am one of the heretics who believes that art must be enjoyed first and analyzed later.

Write. Publish. Repeat.

[Discipline i]t’s the ability to overcome the urge to grab the bright and shiny and interesting to finish what you’ve started.

Someday your life will be over, no matter how much attention you give to your health. Will you look back with regret, because you nourished your body but starved your soul?

You can't solve problems with the same thinking that caused them.

I think the best-written films or television series have a measure of the opposite of what they are.

Someone has to stay on the line and say, no, we can do this by cutting spending and reducing the size of government. That's what I was committed to doing.

I understand why people get desensitized and roll their eyes when they hear a protest song, or even a politician making some flowery speech. It doesn't really change anything.

Does the New York City Ballet affect other places? Yeah, it lets people know they should come to New York.

The Church is called to draw near to every person, beginning with the poorest and those who suffer.

Many people think you shouldn't stop kids from being kids, and I agree, but no one wants the worst case scenario on their hands. Better safe than sorry I say.

Desires going before conversion are not such as can calm a storming conscience.

An undisturbed river is as perfect as we will ever know, every refractive slide of cold water a glimpse of eternity.