no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed

Probably careful plotting reflects my personality. I am meticulous by nature. I can't imagine speed-writing anything that happens to pop into my head.

I love sports, as all Bostonians seem to. I love books and movies, as all writers seem to.

The interior of a teenager’s mind is an endless war between Stupid and Clever.

Predisposition is not predestination.

An emotion is a thought, yes, an idea, but it is also a sensation, an ache in your body. Desire, love, hate, fear, repulsion - you feel these things in your muscle and bones, not just in your mind.

You know, being confident isn't the same as being right.

We move through time like a man in a rowboat, looking back even as we move forward.

Good stories are driven by conflict, tension, and high stakes.

You can write a great book and be ignored. Literary history is full of classics that were under-appreciated in their own time.

There are many more ways to be attractive than to be beautiful.

Our power comes from the earth

Get a backbone, not a wishbone.

I grew up as a reader as well as a movie-lover, so many of the novelists I admired - and so many of the great filmmakers I loved - were self-taught.

...from schools to universities to research institutes, we teach about origins in disconnected fragments. We seem incapable of offering a unified account of how things came to be the way they are.

I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.

Nothing is more important in our national life than the welfare of our children.

L'homme est une passion inutile. Man is a useless passion.

The only way to quieten me is to invite me to a tennis match.

The thing is to be able to outlast the trends.

Curiosity is the mother of science, wonder is the mother of spirituality.