People who know various movie versions don't really know the story.

" ... What if?" Through the alchemy of those two words, something new comes into the world.

When I teach writing, I have a mantra: Be a first-rate version of yourself, and not a second-rate version of another writer.

His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew, standing by the pump of a gas station at the outskirts of Madison, Kentucky.

One generation's idea of fast pace might be different from a later generation's.

A thriller becomes great when it carries a feeling of reality and truth.

There are no inferior types of fiction, only inferior practitioners of them.

As long as thriller authors teach us about our world, they'll be relevant.

Your obligation as writers is to distinguish yourself. … The ultimate result should be a book that you write that no one else could have written.

At their best, thrillers not only entertain. Ideally they also reflect the society in which they are set, analyzing our fears and how we perceive the world.

A thriller must be thrilling. A mystery may or may not be a thriller depending on how much breathless emotion it has, as opposed to cerebral calculation.

The Hebrews have no name for Him, the Moslems have a hundred. Both suggest the same thing, that there are concepts as well as emotions that can be communicated only allegorically.

Poetry is the beauty of life.

Call a man 'ignorant, ' and you have license to show the world your vast fund of knowledge and wise him up.

It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object beware of this stumbling block.

[Hillary Clinton] and I are fine. Are we going to be besties for the rest of our lives? No.

Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the character of the age.

You must be sure that whatever health is brought to mankind it all comes from God.

My favorites growing up were always Billy Joel, Michael Jackson... and Placido Domingo.

I think you have to pick and choose what is most important to tell the story.

Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.