You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger.

If everyone howled at every injustice, every act of barbarism, every act of unkindness, then we would be taking the first step towards a real humanity.

We're all pilgrims on the same journey but some pilgrims have better road maps.

I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting.

There are Mafia families that have bought magnificent houses on the North Shore, although not yet the great estates because they don't want that kind of high profile.

I generally unwind by having dinner with close friends.

Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.

Everyone looked pensive, which is good cover-up for clueless.

How you handle life depends a lot on how you handle plan B, or if you have a plan B.

…made me promise to cut down on the drinking and swearing, which I have. Unfortunately, this has left me dim-witted and nearly speechless.

I sometimes use some personality traits to fashion part of a character. Most of my characters are composites of either people I know or people in the public eye.

Everything about her was sweet, pale like honey. You would not have been surprised to see a bee caught in the tangles of that yellow hair.

For things to be right on the outside, they first have to be right on the inside.

If we feel secureIn the depths of our heart, We shall not challenge anybody, For inner confidenceIs nothing short ofComplete satisfaction.

Smile generously at others and you may find that their smiles are returned right back to you.

Within America, there are extremely different place. I'm not saying it's one homogenous color. It's obviously an incredible place. There's no other place like it, and it's incredibly diverse.

I had a normal childhood. There were women, but it wasn't like Hefner's Playboy Mansion. If it was, I'd still be living at home!

[M]an is fulfilling the purpose of existence who no longer needs to have any purpose except to live. That is to say, who is content.

Artists are in the imagining/ prototyping business. Society needs people to be out there thinking of what might be. That cannot be something we just delegate to politicians or technologists.

I wanted to do an acting role in a movie that had nothing to do with the music business or in which I would play a singer or a songwriter. When I act, I don't even want to be thought of as Ne-Yo.

The fetters of tyranny were not stricken from America for the sake of Americans alone.