One of the nastier trends in library management in recent years is the notion that libraries should be 'responsive to their patrons'.

Fred Astaire is my hero. I love him because he was willing to kill himself to make his art look effortless. And because he proved it's possible to be an artist and a good person.

I learned everything I know about plot from Dame Agatha (Christie).

I have never written anything in one draft, not even a grocery list, although I have heard from friends that this is actually possible.

And every place and time an author writes about is imaginary, from Oz to Raymond Chandler's L.A. to Dickens's London.

It is my belief that everything you need to know about the world can be learned in a church choir.

Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?

I have great faith in the future of books - no matter what form they may take - and of science fiction.

Science fiction is an amazing literature: plot elements that you would think would be completely worn out by now keep changing into surprising new forms.

To do something for someone or something you loved-England or Shakespeare or a dog or the Hodbins or history-wasn't a sacrifice at all. Even if it cost you your freedom, your life, your youth.

Writers are too neurotic to ever be happy.

We laughed as we ducked behind a pile of snow. Then our brothers came charging through the barrier, sending the four of us sliding down a white slope full of cherished memories.

Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood.

People sacrifice the present for the future. But life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.

The truth of my experience is that we are all a lot more alike than we are different.

I'm very emotional and possessive about all my films.

Gas tax holiday is a classic Washington gimmick.

Everybody recognizes that if you can make very efficient electric motors, you can make a quantum leap forward.

I am of this mind, that might and malice, deceit and treachery perjury and impiety may lawfully be committed in love; which is lawless.

Ultimately, I don't care if people decide that what I'm doing is real or not...as long as they understand it isn't EASY.

Jesus understands our weaknesses and sins; and he forgives us if we allow ourselves to be forgiven.