The language fictional characters use is chosen for effect, at least if the author is concentrating.

We're not lost. We're locationally challenged

We're all living on borrowed time. The trick is to come up with works of sufficient interest to pay off the debt.

There are people who believe in an absolutely transparent prose; with every respect for clarity of expression, I don't.

Observe, don't imitate.

At one point I intended to write precursor and sequel novels, about the establishment of the Web and its next evolution, but I am very unlikely to now; they would take place in a different universe.

Every book is three books, after all; the one the writer intended, the one the reader expected, and the one that casts its shadow when the first two meet by moonlight.

Well, it's an adventure story, and a Bildungsroman, of course, but there was also the intention to describe a culture that had been seen in rather narrow terms.

Creating the fictional background for a game world isn't significantly different from creating a background for fiction.

Sometimes the reader will decide something else than the author's intent; this is certainly true of attempts to empirically decipher reality.

There are readers who want every point to be clearly and unambiguously set forth, and there are those who want to pry ideas and meanings out for themselves.

There is a spiritual hunger in the world today - and it cannot be satisfied by better cars on longer credit terms.

No matter what you do, if you're trying to create something new, your environment has a massive impact on you.

An extra pressure, a silent rebuke, an unseen praising, a firm correction: all these passed between us as through telegraph wires.

Today, most models don't know the first thing about makeup. My mom taught me that makeup is supposed to enhance my natural beauty, not create a mask.

Music, which should pulsate with life, needs new means of expression, and science alone can infuse it with youthful vigor.

I find that when you read a script, or rewrite something, or look at something that's been gone over, you can tell, like rings on a tree, by how bad it is, how long it's been in development.

With Donald Trump, you know, what I would tell you is that he's got shelf life like I never would have guessed.

Even in an apocalypse like this, surely running out of Coke qualified as a disaster.

Your short-term memory really is shot! It must drive you nuts!!

In my case, I pay a standard premium to participate in the Federal Employees' Health Benefits Plan for my wife and myself out of each month's paycheck.