I have relaxed into my persona as an author, although I used to fight that.

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars.

The status quo was rote memorization and recitation in classrooms thronged with passive children who were sternly disciplined when they expressed individual needs.

My father is a practicing criminal law attorney in the Seattle area.

At one level you're condemned to the voice you have. But within those confines, you have a certain amount of freedom to range among your possible voices.

There are things in this universe that we cannot control, and then there are the things we can. . . . Let fate, coincidence, and accident conspire; human beings must act on reason.

What some people interpret as brooding melancholy is serenity. I don't feel required to grasp all the time.

accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart.

There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left.

It's a brooding melancholy that haunts me.

I'm interested in themes that endure from generation to generation.

DEATH IS A PROFOUND LESSON IN TRUTH: We grow to understand more about it from childhood until the day we must cross the mystic chasm and abandon the land of the living.

If your credit is going to grow at 10-15 percent per year in order to get your 5 percent GDP growth per year, eventually you're going to have a problem. This isn't a stable system.

A statesman who shakes the fruit trees of his neighbors - to dislodge the worms.

If you're happy inside you don't have to convince everyone else.

The incompetent quickly throws himself into another impressive enterprise in order to escape his responsibility from previous disaster.

It seems I’m getting fresher everytime I turn around.

All I ever wanted to do is to write stories that people will enjoy and feel at home with.

Fixing markets isn't enough. We have to actively shape and create them and tilt the playing field in the direction of the growth we want.

I think every woman should have leopard, but not every woman will wear leopard. You have to have courage to wear leopard.

If you meet someone whose soul is not aligned with yours, send them love and move along.