...on a subconscious level we're aware that time isn't enduring, that it is not a required condition of our existence, that there comes a point when we will have no need of it.

I knew that suffering can purify, that it's a kind of fire that can be worth enduring, but there were degrees of it to which I chose not to subject myself.

Such grief might be to them quite delicious, a delicacy.

Small-town boy meets big-time evil.

As I turned to leave the tent, she said, "Don't worry. Your own mother wouldn't know you."I said, "She never has.

Free will, " she agreed, "our greatest gift, the thing that makes life worth living, in spite of all the anguish it brings.

Her direct stare probed, as if the story of my life were written in my eyes in a few succinct lines that she could read.

...Here lie your hopes and dreams, shattered and swept aside...

I needed a moment to understand that I'd been dreaming, that I had come awake, and another moment to remember where I had gone to bed.

Apparently profanity had a way of making men listen.

Boys have said in the past that I live my life like a movie. I love all things romantic, like kissing in the rain.

I love my films. I have stacks and stacks of DVDs. I put Last of the Mohicans on the other day with Daniel Day-Lewis. It hurts me to say it because he's a Millwall fan, but I think he's fantastic.

The lesson is clear: As impractical as it may sound, the safest and most secure way to lead your life is to follow your dream.

Curiosity in Rome is a form of courtesy.

In fact, the 20th century I think was the most fascinating century and the whole of man civilization because so much happened.

Most of my books are about contemporary subjects, and the world changes so fast that I'm lucky when events haven't overtaken the book I'm writing at the moment.

Aaron Burr was like a new refrigerator. He was bright, cold and empty.

It gives me a sense of tunnel vision.