A girl like that, Grandad said, perfumes herself with ozone and metal filings.

Mutually assured destruction.

Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.

Every hero is the villain of his own story.

Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today's tasks.

You're like this leopard who's pretending to be a house cat.

Those who really love you don't mean to hurt you and if they do, you can't see it in their eyes but it hurts them too.

Jewels, lies, slips of paper, dried flowers, memories of thing long past, useless quotations, idle hands, beads, buttons, and mischief.

Put your puppet on the throne." said Talathain. "You may make her Queen but she won’t be Queen for long.

There’s nothing like a gunshot to make you the life of the party.

If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.

Huge difference between being happy at will, and chasing euphoric moments as an escape. One doesn't cost a dime, the other will tax your soul.

Except for in politics, no one likes to follow an idea without a firm base to walk on

Talking is easy action difficult.

If you've ever had a brush with cancer, you're always thinking a pain might be something serious.

When I'm in good form there are chances that rivals will worry more about you more than you about them.

Heaven knows, I've exposed myself in my novels through the use of fantasy and imagination... now my new book is about what really happened to me... not my heroines.

It was never what I wanted to buy that held my heart's hope. It was what I wanted to be.

The Golden Arches of McDonald's rise, glorious across the landscape, contempo-monolithic, simple in concept as Stonehenge if we could but see it.

Writers acquire their technique by spotting, savoring, and reverse-engineering examples of good prose.

How can I be a gangster, if I worked for the KGB? It is absolutely ridiculous.