When people ask, "Is there any advice you'd give a young writer?," I say write short stories. They afford lots of failure. Pastiche is a great way to start.

...falling in love could be achieved in a single word—a glance.

come back, come back to me

Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.

I've never had a moment's doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life.

A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.

True intelligence requires fabulous imagination.

When its gone, you'll know what a gift love was. you'll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.

I believe the novella is the perfect form of prose fiction. It is the beautiful daughter of a rambling, bloated ill-shaven giant (but a giant who's a genius on his best days).

I'm holding back, delaying the information. I'm lingering in the prior moment because it was a time when other outcomes were still possible.

Observing human variety can give pleasure, but so too can human sameness.

I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.

When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.

I wanted to be a disgusting, oozing zombie, not a sexy, cleavage zombie, which is what I was expecting, given my previous film work.

Our idea for Hannibal Lecter is that he's very reactionary - he's somebody who can adapt really well to circumstances.

The highest type of meditation is done in silence. In silence there are no mantras. Mantras are not essential, but they can be very helpful.

Religion is the natural reaction of the imagination when confronted by the difficulties in a truculent world.

An epitaph is a belated advertisement for a line of goods that have been permanently discontinued.

I want to make a summing up, brief and to the point, but thorough. I have never suppressed a word in my books out of regard for other people and their prejudices.

My rule on honorary degrees has always been to have one more than Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

To me, the most perfect screenplay ever written will be one word, when you finally reduce it down to that. Until then, writing will be an imperfect form of communication.