In every thriller written about Washington, particularly after 9/11, there are good guys and there are bad guys, and there's no gray area at all.

Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?

I'm scattered, and then that last hundred pages, bam, I'm a laser.

But if I worried too much about publishers' expectations, I'd probably paralyze myself and not be able to write anything.

It's not the beginning or the destination that counts. It's the ride in between.

Libraries rock! Not a sermon, just a fact. As a kid I was a library rat and books changed my life. They can change yours.

Today might not be so good. But tomorrow, you got another chance to get it right.

Fiction is sort of a way to set the record straight, and let people at least believe that justice can be achieved and the right outcomes can occur.

Two people can care for each other but not want the same things.

When a poor man gives something, that is a sacrifice indeed. When a rich man gives something, it hardly rises to the same level.

You haven't yet seen me be rude. When I am it's unmistakable. - Michelle Maxwell.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

Slowly, painfully, I let go. It was like prying my own fingers off the edge of the cliff. And that hurt too-particularly the falling part, and not being sure what was at the b

An ethics of desire is good news for those of us who have become allergic to an ethics of law.

Advertising and promotion alone will not sustain a bad product or a product that is not right for the times.

And real nobility (that of the heart) is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference.

The soul of a child is as complicated and full of contradictions as our soul is.

Let us swear while we may, for in heaven it will not be allowed

I hope she saw the passion, and no need to tell Mark Anthony about it.

I think that people like the Howard Sterns, the Bill O'Reillys and to a lesser degree the bin Ladens of the world are making a horrible contribution.

Life is a vacation from two eternities.