The spring of 1942 was given over to a very impassioned, strategic debate about where we should first attack in counterpunching against the Germans and Italians. The British argued very persuasively...

I don't call myself a Buddhist. I'm a free spirit. I believe I'm here on earth to admire and enjoy it; that's my religion.

Whenever I have tried to write for other people, that's when my writing has failed, when nobody wanted to read it or buy it. But it's only when I've been able to write a story that makes me excited,...

My mother was a big reader, and my father was an editorial writer for a newspaper.

Only losers make decisions when things are bad. The time to rejig your life is the time when it's seemingly smooth.

You can't remember the plot of the Dr Who movie because it didn't have one, just a lot of plot holes strung together. It did have a lot of flashing lights, though.

Daytime soap operas, which I used to adore, have been declining in quality and importance for over a decade, and I gradually stopped monitoring them.

One shouldn't say yes in desperation to the first publisher who approaches. New authors especially should wait and weigh their deal and only agree when they are certain they have landed a good offer.

Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.

Astrology's a moving system that depends on where you're looking at it from on Earth. My horoscope here in London would be completely different to down in New Zealand.

The building blocks of mathematical thinking are requisite for more advanced conceptualization. If a student is not ready to move on, then the teacher must take time to assist that learner.

I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.

I think the Queen enjoyed my book on her father, George VI.

Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.

The basic premise of 'A Course in Miracles' is that it teaches us to relinquish thoughts based on fear and to accept instead thoughts based on love.

I think I would have written more books if I'd had fewer kids or had them earlier, but I think the books in general would have had a little less spark to them.

A nice quick workout is the stairs; it takes me five minutes to do 24 floors.

I won't hold any illusions of changing the world or any such nonsense. But maybe, just maybe, I'm helping someone else change his or her life a little bit for the better, even if it just means giving...

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature: What will happen next?

If you've attended the Cordon Bleu, you would know that no woman is supposed to be a chef - only men.

Christianity is a religion of continuity and discontinuity as well. It's about what stays the same and what changes in the twinkling of an eye. Both are necessary truths, but sometimes it's important...

For example, I noticed that every single kid in the high school in 'The Death-Ray' is based on somebody I went to high school with.

I was in my mid 20s when email finally took off. Until then, the phone was my primary way of connecting with the people in my life.

We notice in others only those things that relate to ourselves. For example, you could find someone hilarious and brilliant, and I could find the same person idiotic and annoying. It's the same person...

When lying, be emphatic and indignant, thus behaving like your children.

When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.

I've heard some writers say things like, 'Well, I'm a professional writer. I only start books I know I can finish.' I look at it maybe the other way: I only want to write books I'm not sure I can...

I don't know if I actually am good at the sight of blood. An accident on the street gets me very, very upset.

Nothing in your past is in your present making you do anything you don't choose to do. You are not your past history! You are not your past failures! You are not how others have at one time treated...

Make your goals big and broad enough so that they never become answered prayers and boomerang to curse you.