When asked, How do you write? I invariably answer, One word at a time.

Quiet people have the loudest minds.

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

The water was glassy and calm, still candy-colored in the afterglow of sunset.

A life without love is like a tree without fruit.

The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Outside, daylight was bleeding slowly toward dusk.

You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

People who try hard to do the right thing always seem mad.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there... and still on your feet.

Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all.

Error reduction is like adverse-event reduction; it's a continuous battle, not a one time fix.

To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it.

We made music seated on the grass of Brasilia's super-squares, at home, at college. It was a creative time, more ingenuous, when the people amused more themselves, played more.

My peers at the time: you know, young black kids from off the streets of Harlem, having these conversations with me in my small, dirty little studio up in Harlem.

If there's a heaven, I would probably go. I've actually a very nice person.

Being a Christian... is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast.

I love The Purple Book. It continually helps reinforce the only foundation worth building upon— a biblical one.

I'm the type of person who feels I have to prove myself first.

A negotiator should observe everything. You must be part Sherlock Holmes, part Sigmund Freud.