So when it comes to Elvis and Joe, I have to trust my instincts, because they’ve gotten me here. And I have to write what I believe in, what I find moving.

A dog could see your heart in your eyes, Budress told him, and dogs were drawn to our hearts.

She asked me why I always had something flip to say. I said that I didn't know, but having been blessed with the gift, I felt obliged to use it.

Everyone knows dogs. Most people love dogs. I think most American families probably have a dog, but I don't think people really realize or understand just how wonderful and special dogs are.

Dogs give us something just as we give something to them.

Everything we are is anchored in our childhoods. The drama comes in how we deal with it. Are we slaves to our past, or can we rise above it? This is the stuff of great stories.

The sense of smell in all dogs is their primary doorway to the world around them.

Lucy took a single plain donut from the bag and held it for me to take a bite. Tender and light and still warm from the frying. Not too sugary.

Sometimes I am so dry that people don't know I'm kidding and think I'm being serious. I enjoy this because their reactions are often funny.

People want you to be ordinary.

My books come to me in images, and sometimes the image is at the beginning of the book, and sometimes it's simply a flash somewhere in the middle.

No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy.

We're seeing it the same way, we're hearing the same way, we have the same conception of the situation. And so, for all purposes, we are operating with a very similar perception.

I still get mad. I still get upset. But I let it go more quickly.

Vision remains vision until you focus, do the work, and bring it down to earth where it will do some good.

In the long run [censorship] will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.

Good and bad, strengths and faults, he was hers forever.

This house protected by an armed citizen. There is absolutely nothing here worth dying for.

You may live in a crowd but you meet God and face eternity alone

Consistency is a virtue for trains.

Relentlessly pursue perfection knowing we won't catch it, but in the process we'll achieve excellence.