I erased the thought from my mind, but I couldn't undo the fact that I'd had the thought in the first place.

People make events into stories. Stories give events meaning.

I'm a great believer in gathering together all your obsessions and seeing if you can make a novel out of them.

Routine kills creative thought.

Homeopathy seemed . . . both mathematical and poetic.

What folly takes light through ether to each eye from every horizon.

I wonder if the reason I tend to say yes to everything is because I deeply believe that I can survive anything.

One of the biggest problems for beginning writers is this need to over-explain.

But I quite like the way you can talk about science without necessarily using mathematics, but using metaphors instead.

I think about stories and their logic and wonder if there can be any such thing as simply "there is a book.

In real life nothing means anything. Stuff happens and there just is no structure.

The Revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the Revolution!

As a travel writer I've specialized in gritty, fearful destinations, the kind of places that make a reader's hair stick on end.

[I]n my own case at least I feel my professional need for freedom of speech and expression prejudices me toward a government whose constitution guarantees it.

I don't look at computers as opponents. For me it is much more interesting to beat humans.

Telling the truth to people who misunderstand you is generally promoting a falsehood, isn't it?

You get what you're good enough to take.

I do have a natural sense for business, which I think I get from my Dad.

Who were you before you put yourself last.

The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.

I wouldn't know how to think inside the box because I don't even know where it is. I wouldn't know how to do it any other way.