A clear conscience is generally the result of a faulty memory, not a faulty life.

And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death.

Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don't stand a chance against it.

The ecosystem of our world is a closed system: it would run out of gas, collapse of its own weight.

Throughout the ages, stories with certain basic themes have recurred over and over, in widely disparate cultures; emerging like the goddess Venus from the sea of our unconscious.

For every path you choose, there is another you must abandon, usually forever.

Studying anthropology, I developed a kind of holistic view of human existence, in which the dichotomies you listed are all necessary and vital aspects of life.

Archaeology is the anthropology of the past, and science fiction is the anthropology of the future.

Here was a fragment of Goddess myth that, through all its permutations, had somehow escaped being turned on its head. It was the perfect springboard for the sort of novel I wanted to write.

But our society does not grant nontraditional forms of intelligence equal recognition, no matter how much it would help us get along or truly enrich our lives.

Natural isn't the same as right. Normal isn't the same as moral. Everyone deserves a say in what happens to the world.

I always said I never wanted to write about love, but then I went and did that anyway.

When I was four years old some friends of my family took me to see 'Fantasia' and I was totally blown away. From that minute on I wanted to be an animator.

The artist envies what the arties gains, The bard the rival bard's successful strains.

They are all different and I find it hard to tell what flute suits me best.

I can imagine wanting to work with this ensemble and this company always.

You can't trust others unless you trust yourself.

One of the great things that you should never do that I learned from John Malkovich is to never judge your characters.

Stories are hard. I have friends who knock out stories on a weekly or monthly basis, like they're running on medicinal-strength Updike. But for me a story is as daunting a prospect as a novel.

I can't sing worth a lick, so I don't know if I would be allowed in the ["The Mickey Mouse Club"].