The sky was the yellow color of old cheese and the clouds flew across it, as if they had seen something horrifying in the desert wastes where they had so lately been.

Quiet people have the loudest minds.

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

The water was glassy and calm, still candy-colored in the afterglow of sunset.

A life without love is like a tree without fruit.

The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Outside, daylight was bleeding slowly toward dusk.

You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet.

If only you could see the greatness in yourself, you wouldn't envy the greatness in others.

My four years in the Marine Corps left me with an indelible understanding of the value of leadership skills.

And there it was again. Another religion turned against itself. Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature.

The NBA's chosen ones think I'm setting a bad example? I think they need to look around and stop taking themselves so seriously.

I would have loved to have met some former spies, but they don't readily advertise themselves unless they're not living in Moscow, and even then. I'm sure I've met some without realizing it.

What gets measured gets managed.

When engineers and quantity surveyors discuss aesthetics and architects study what cranes do we are on the right road.

Life itself is pretty funny when you realize how absurd it can be.

I won't live in a mostly Mexican neighborhood. I'm sorry I just won't do it.

Banking and after-dinner speaking are two of the most nonessential industries we have in this country. I am ready to reform, if they are.