When we can't see a pattern, we fit pieces together until one takes shape, because we have to.

Some people are little Chernobyls, shimmering with silent, spreading poison: get anywhere near them and every breath you take will wreck you from the inside out.

I wanted to tell her that being loved is a talent too, that it takes as much guts and as much work as loving; that some people, for whatever reason, never learn the knack

Her forehead was a maze of anxious little grooves, from a lifetime of wondering about whether everyone within range was OK.

A bore or an uggo might manage not to get up anyone's nose, but if a girl's got brains and looks and personality, she's going to piss someone off, somewhere along the way.

Don't you ever feel that - that you just need to get away? From everything? That it's all too much?

I hate nostalgia, it's laziness with prettier accessories.

We think about mortality so little, these days, except to flail hysterically at it with trendy forms of exercise and high-fiber cereals and nicotine patches.

The thing about being a mystery writer, what marks a mystery writer out from a chick lit author or historical fiction writer, is that you always find a mystery in every situation.

I don't do that kind of negativity. If you put your energy into thinking about how much the fall would hurt, you're already halfway down.

I had been right: freedom smelled like ozone and thunderstorms and gunpowder all at once, like snow and bonfires and cut grass, it tasted like seawater and oranges.

Each of our five senses contains an art.

It is foolish for the moon to compete with the sun for the spotlight.

I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.

Personally, just as an actor, I love accents; they're fun.

The ability to fail quietly without having that failure associated with your name/identity allows for more experimentation and limit pushing.

Are you asking a question because you want to know the answer or are you asking the question because you want your partner to know that you are having this question?

The hangover became a part of the day as well allowed-for as the Spanish siesta.

Being an actor, you are recognized for being somebody else, whereas these books are distilled from me.

Under our regional cooperation projects, we are building roads and bridges. The scope of regional cooperation [with China] is constantly growing.

You do not need to look or be anorexic to be successful in Hollywood. The range of what's acceptable is a lot larger than what people believe.