At one level you're condemned to the voice you have. But within those confines, you have a certain amount of freedom to range among your possible voices.

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.

The status quo was rote memorization and recitation in classrooms thronged with passive children who were sternly disciplined when they expressed individual needs.

My father is a practicing criminal law attorney in the Seattle area.

There are things in this universe that we cannot control, and then there are the things we can. . . . Let fate, coincidence, and accident conspire; human beings must act on reason.

What some people interpret as brooding melancholy is serenity. I don't feel required to grasp all the time.

accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart.

There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left.

It's a brooding melancholy that haunts me.

I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation.

I think you have an obligation to share what you know as a writer.

Memories don't need logic.

We find ourselves constantly in battle in the vast human theaters of conflict.

I not only stand on my two feet, but I walk on my two feet for my two feet.

Never in my life had I been more frustrated. Go figure it wouldn't be with a human but a freaking alien. At least I now knew that the male species were asses no matter what planet they hailed from.

Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.

Don't pray that God's on our side, pray that we're on his side.

Give up being right. Instead radiate peace, harmony, love, and laughter from your heart.

Teach the youth to speak the truth, show them what peace can do

Morrissey was my Mrs. Garrett, the house mother from the Facts of Life, a soothing adult figure giving me words of wisdom.

I hate the analyzing thing. People say, 'Why do you think your character did that? I don't know. I'm not an analyst, and they're not in psychotherapy. Unless it's a film where they're in therapy.