Trapped in a trap of your own making.

In every thriller written about Washington, particularly after 9/11, there are good guys and there are bad guys, and there's no gray area at all.

Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?

I'm scattered, and then that last hundred pages, bam, I'm a laser.

But if I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything.

It's not the beginning or the destination that counts. It's the ride in between.

Libraries rock! Not a sermon, just a fact. As a kid I was a library rat and books changed my life. They can change yours.

Today might not be so good. But tomorrow, you got another chance to get it right.

Fiction is sort of a way to set the record straight, and let people at least believe that justice can be achieved and the right outcomes can occur.

Two people can care for each other but not want the same things.

When a poor man gives something, that is a sacrifice indeed. When a rich man gives something, it hardly rises to the same level.

Piece makes Peace, Pain makes Paint, A Word create World. "The One person can change you, Maybe ubiquitous r inconspicuous.

If the first job one has in a given profession acts as a tuning fork for the career that follows, Frederick Thomas was attuned from the start to a pitch of the highest quality.

Part of being a champ is acting like a champ. You have to learn how to win and not run away when you lose. Everyone has bad stretches and real successes.

You can't underestimate the power of fear.

A good person can make another person good; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society; other persons will also be good.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.

But my philosophy is that plot advancement is not what the experience of reading fiction is about. If all we care about is advancing the plot, why read novels? We can just read Cliffs Notes.

If it's just politics that's running music, f - k that. I'm out of here! I can't think of anything more boring.

I don't know how many people have ever seen the National Guard break in somewhere, but they mean business.

People around the world just want self-respect. They want to take care of themselves, they want to pay for their own bills, they want to take care of their families.