I hate libraries for the way they put stickers on things. I don't approve of folding over pages, or of writing in books. God, forget scissors - that's beyond the pale.

I try not to become too regular an addict of any one subculture.

I never take any notes or draw charts or make elaborate diagrams, but I hold an image of the shape of a book in my head and work from that mental hologram.

I've never related to the work geek at all-it sounds much more horrible than nerd. Like a freak biting a chicken's head off in a sideshow.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.

Someday I would change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.

I work on a laptop specifically so I can work in cafes and pretend I'm part of the human world.

What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?

It was only as I wrote about fear that I began to find paths of access to feelings that were intolerable to me then.

I want what we all want," said Carl. "To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the exterior world, to see if they can be embraced.

I can't bear the silent ringing in my skull.

The Power of the Pen is not in the color of ink it spills

Travelling on the known path is intelligence

[On the virtuous man] "He combines the highest, lowest and middle chords in complete harmony within himself.

Life ought to be lived on a basis of silence, where truth blossoms.

You can test what we have talked about today. Just try two things. Listen for the whisperings of the Spirit and then commit to obey. . . . God will take advantage of that if you let Him

Somehow writing has always seemed to me to have an element of performance.

The way you become divine is to become wholly human

There certainly is such a thing as screen chemistry, although I don't believe you find it frequently.

Caltech was a meat grinder like I could never have imagined.

If you wait until all the lights are 'green' before you leave home, you'll never get started on your trip to the top.