Everybody is a True Believer. Everybody has a little nugget they're convinced of that is the opposite of the nugget on the other side. And they're convinced it's fact.

In my day, we didn't have self-esteem, we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned.

You've either got to find a way to make your continuing characters interesting without making them maudlin or overwrought, or you've got to put more emphasis on the suspects.

Knowledge pursued for its own sake - that's the definition of education, as opposed to training.

I was the executive editor on a little magazine called Greek Accent, whose only claim to fame is that its art director went on to be the art director of Discover for many years.

Nobody in real life ever takes me seriously.

I don't make my own schedule - it's constructed around my sons' school schedules.

Listen to advice. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least half the audience fights all the conventions of the field.

I've been a teacher at the college level, in composition mostly, and I've been an editor on magazines.

People always seemed to know half of history, and to get it confused with the other half.

If you don't burn the candle at both ends, what's the candle got two ends for?

No matter wherever you are, share your joy to make this world joyful and better.

You have everything inside you, though you sometimes only recognise certain bits relating to the current stage of your path.

Abuse the innocent and create a monster.

Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life.

There are many children who need help, and anyone who wants to reach out and adopt a child from foster care or from a Russian orphanage should reach out and do it.

Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own.

The orchid is Mother Nature's masterpiece.

I loved performing; I was always trying to impress my siblings by being a clown. I think that came from being the runt of the litter.

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you're obsessed with yourself, and I'm not - you can become unhinged so easily.

General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocite, flatterer.