Then he said in his most excellent Mick impression, "Your powers are useless against Ninja Lords, O great zombie hunter! Surrender or feel the sting of the shuriken!

I said to him, "State your business, mortal!" There was no need for me to call him "mortal" or to speak like a sixteenth-century knight. It just sounded cool.

They were just the ordinary sounds of of people beginning their day, silly raucous, discordant, but they were the most beautiful sounds on earth, the sounds of living people.

I write books and either people read them or they don't read them. The rise of Facebook or e-books doesn't change the difficulty level of writing sentences and thinking up new ideas.

You cannot protect your solitude if you cannot make yourself odious.

That's generally true of people who drop bombs from high altitudes. You don't know what's going on below. You don't see the human consequences of what you're doing.

There are no big things, only a logical accumulation of little things done at a very high standard of performance.

How do you fight an invisible opponent like suspicion?

A scientist's aim in a discussion with his colleagues is not to persuade, but to clarify.

It's going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking. Or as Charlie Sheen calls it: Breakfast.

I'm still tap dancing. I'm still going.