The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out.

No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too big if it's cherished.

Surely: the adverb of a man without an argument.

It seems people spend the majority of their lives believing they're dying, with the only consolation being that at one point they get to be right.

People never remeber happiness with the care that they lavish on preserving every detail of their suffering.

Everything was usual. That was depression: being stuck, clinging to an out-of-date version of oneself.

I think that some laughter comes from escaped horror, doesn't it?

I'm not trying to uncover the facts of my life but to discover the dramatic truth of the situations I was in.

Well, the attractive thing about the subject of happiness is that it is notoriously difficult to write.

Detachment is what interests me, seeing how people couldn't have been any other way, how they were the product of forces that they had no control over.

You can only give things up once they start to let you down.

..Imam Ali [A]..'However knows himself (his soul or spirit) knows [or has known] his Lord

Laughter can be more satisfying than honor

Some people might say that I think too highly of you just because I worship the water you walk on.

Macey was just starting to argue when Abby asked, "What can you tell me about the gunmen?" "They're amateurs," Hale said at the exact same time Macey told her teacher, "They're pros.

If you're afraid of being grabbed by God, don't look at a wall. Definitely don't sit still.

Humanity may endure the loss of everything; all its possessions may be turned away without infringing its true dignity - all but the possibility of improvement.

Jesus, are all vampires over two hundred perverts?" "I am over two hundred," Jean-Claude said. "I rest my case.

Normally, I spend a week on the outline and take two weeks to write the book.

When I see a train, I want to take it in my arms.

I neither look up to the rich or down to the poor.