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.

I think you have an obligation to share what you know as a writer.

Teach a person to think and they'll devise a way to eat for a lifetime

That’s the beauty of the universe. There’s always a new mystery.

No matter how ill we may be nor how low we may have fallen we should not change identity with any other person.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

Any husband who says, "My wife and I are completely equal partners," is talking about either a law firm or a hand of bridge.

In the face of impermanence, if your next thought is good, this is what we call the realization body.

I have long discovered that geologists never read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is a proof of earnestness.

The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media.

For business, our internet love affair was a gift from the gods.

No matter what happens to me, I will always love the people of Syria.