We all have some ideological quotient in ourselves. And I think it does guide who we are.

When writing dialogue, I hear it in both Russian and English, and try to find a language that combines the two.

Why are some people highly principled and willing to do anything for their principles, while most of us are not? And I am willing to not only ask, but also answer the question.

Language is a personality as well. People are different when they speak different languages.

I spent seven years writing The Free World. There are a lot of things I accomplished there that I'm very proud of, but I didn't want to spend another seven years writing a book like that.

People everywhere feel differently at different times of their lives.

I think having an uncompromising ideology eventually forces you out of the norm.

We are taught that we can be better than we are. But is there a limit to how good we can be?

In my experience of women, women have a greater capacity. Maybe women, even very pragmatic ones, are less guarded about showing emotions.

Nothing is easy in writing. I don't think for anyone. But dialogue is probably what comes most naturally to me.

When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel.

You look around at the people in your life, one by one, choosing to hold on to the ones who make you stronger and better, and letting go of the ones who don't.

The basis of everything I do is the universe.

Walls work both ways. They keep people out...but they keep people in, too.

A man must be of a very quiet and happy nature, who can long endure the country; and, moreover, very well contented with his own insignificant person.

Our brand is sassy people ripping apart technologists, then going to a party with them.

I think Tony Fucile, who did the illustrations [for Bink & Gollie], is an absolute genius. I've never met him.

Having worked my way from the bottom of the ladder to the top [of the UN] certainly helped me navigate that complexity, both political and bureaucratic.

God hath put no such difference between the Male and Female as man would make.

We have learned more about the brain in the last fifteen years than in all prior human history, and the mind, once considered out of reach, is finally assuming center stage.

I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray.