You have to be an outsider to write.

Then there was the whole concept of coal mining, which is a culture unto itself, the most dangerous occupation in the world, and which draws and develops a certain kind of man.

As a novelist, I tell stories and people give me money. Then financial planners tell me stories and I give them money.

The most beautiful women in the world were African.

Of course the biggest mafia in Russia has always been the government; in Soviet times, the Communist Party, and now a circle of former KGB and FSB.

I have another Russian idea, too, with a place and a period, so I guess I have enough to keep me busy for quite some time, especially considering that I'm such a slow writer.

Because normal human activity is worse for nature than the greatest nuclear accident in history.

The great thing about being a writer is that you are always recreating yourself.

I used to be treated like an idiot, now I'm treated like an idiot savant.

Mystery books. I must read a hundred a year. . . I just wish some of them were harder to figure out.

I'm very aware when I'm speaking to the English of how flat my Mid-Atlantic American voice is.

You’re frustrated because you keep waiting for the blooming of flowers of which you have yet to sow the seeds.

PROBLEMS are like cold or hot water, how much you pack it tightly but its moisture comes outside

In the auto industry, there's one thing you can always count on: if a new environmental or safety rule is proposed, executives will prophesy disaster.

The moment the word 'why' crosses your lips, you are doing theology.

I want to win a World Series. I couldn't care less about MVP.

You can always go back to not making any money, and then you get the freedom. And I'm going to continue doing it, because it really is a fantastic sense of liberation.

My husband does not like me to give interviews because I say too much. No talk, no trouble.

There's a great universe just next door.

It is not just about the money, it is about what you achieve on the pitch.

You know, I don’t know what the future will bring, but I’m ready for whatever comes!