Don't judge it. Just write it. Don't judge it. It's not for you to judge it.

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.

You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.

When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place.

Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.

Man is a moral animal abandoned in an amoral universe and condemned to a finite existence with no other prupose than to perpetuate the natural cycle of the species.

love was never meant to bejust a metaphorbetween the pages of poetry.

Because I was a television writer for many years, I write very conversationally. I put things straight, and with a lot of humor.

Establish a system you have confidence in and rely on it when you get into tough situations.

The lower you fall, the higher you'll fly. The farther you run, the more God wants you back.

We will not lose this election for lack of money.

Wisdom is the ability to realize that everyone has their own dharma, everyone goes their own way. What works for you is not the ultimate good. Know that other people have different way.

My greatest trials come through those professing to be near and attached friends, who expect things.

Anything that's expanding the mind and heart is happiness. But it's not a goal.

From the War for Independence to today in Iraq and Afghanistan, I am inspired by the courage, professionalism and patriotism of our men and women in uniform.