I expect to think that I would rather be author of your book [The Origin of Species] than of any other on Nat. Hist. Science.[Letter to Charles Darwin 12 Dec 1859]

I was aware of Darwin's views fourteen years before I adopted them and I have done so solely and entirely from an independent study of the plants themselves.[Letter to W.H. Harvey]

An educated, healthy & confident nation is harder to govern

Don’t buy into the campaign that people don’t like change. We are built for it.

Leaning in, he brushed his lips on Holly's cheek, and whispered in her ear, "You okay?" She gave him a sidelong glance. "You might not promise adventure, but you sure do deliver.

This was hell then

I love books because I don't have to wait for the commercials to be over to find out what happens.

The cards always look different when it's your turn to play them; loaded with subtly different possibilities.

If you're talking triple threat of a writer, singer and actress, that would probably be Beyoncé. If Aaliyah were still here, she and Beyoncé would be neck and neck.

I admire writers who can make complicated things simple, but my own talent has been to make simple things complicated.

As fast as each opportunity presents itself, use it! No matter how tiny an opportunity it may be, use it!

My younger brother and I have been writing together, mainly for fun, for years, but we've been improvising together since we were kids. Literally.