There is no quality so contrary to any nature which one cannot affect, and put on upon occasion, in order to serve an interest.

Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.

We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy.

Promises and pie-crust are made to be broken.

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

You should never be ashamed to admit you have been wrong. It only proves you are wiser today than yesterday

The sight of you is good for sore eyes.

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

A good approach is to allow one dream per novel. Then, in the final revision, go back and get rid of that, too.

Leadership. When you attract more skilled people than you.

Fiction is as easy as telling a convincing lie. The more believable the better the story.

In my heart of hearts, I'm a character actress, whereas other people play their one strength.

Who would dream that one can love without being crushed under the weight of it?

Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola.

If Albert Einstein was right, Cal Ripken should have been a CEO or politician rather than a shortstop, because Ripken led by example over and over... and over again.

There are some things that, if you say them out loud, will hurt the other person's feelings. I tend to say them anyway. It's better to be honest.

There are so few surprises left in life. We've gotten so addicted to knowing. It's the Google generation. We want the answer to everything right now!

Somehow, as a writer, you tend to use words to paper over structural cracks.