I became a connoisseur of that nasty thud a manuscript makes when it comes through the letter box.

I intentionally abandoned the hard stuff early on because not only do I think it's useless, I think it's a distraction.

I married an American. He was from the Pacific Northwest but went to law school in the South, so I was living in Virginia and North Carolina.

What I miss is being close to nature - collecting your own water and generating your own electricity, catching your own food. I still dream of doing that with my own family, even if it's just for a...

In the simplest terms, a fast-growing company can't keep growing at the same fast rate forever. It eventually has to slow down.

For a book to function... it has to be a functioning reality. The character has to be real, and I imagine that's exactly what happens for a spy who is in deep cover.

The market for short stories is hard to break into, but a magazine editor isn't always looking for big names with which to sell his magazine - they're more willing to try stories by newcomers, if...

An idea's birth is legitimate if one has the feeling that one is catching oneself plagiarizing oneself.

I had all kinds of food issues, including health concerns and weight concerns.

Extreme law is often extreme injustice.

I am often on guard over the Russians. In the darkness one sees their forms move like stick storks, like great birds. They come close up to the wire fence and lean their faces against it. Their...

When I'm writing, I won't know whodunnit until maybe two thirds of the way through. Until then, I know as little as my detective. I just make it up as I go along. It's nerve-wracking, actually. You'll...

In twenty-first-century America, our stories have become one and the same: we work to consume, we live to consume, we are what we consume.

Discomfort levels in our societies are rising, or so it would seem. In theory, we invoke diversity and tolerance. But in real life, we raise our hackles and withdraw into ourselves.

There was no last animal I treated. When young farm lads started to help me over the gate into a field or a pigpen, to make sure the old fellow wouldn't fall, I started to consider retiring.

In the past, it was easier to believe in my own effectiveness. If I worked hard, with good colleagues and good ideas, we could make a difference. But now, I sincerely doubt that.

You must welcome change as the rule but not as your ruler.

Personally, I have nothing against work, particularly when performed, quietly and unobtrusively, by someone else. I just don't happen to think it's an appropriate subject for an 'ethic.'

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

When I write, I can shake off all my cares.

You make 'em, I amuse 'em.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

He who is not just is severe, he who is not wise is sad.

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.

A kitten is chiefly remarkable for rushing about like mad at nothing whatever, and generally stopping before it gets there.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food,...

Children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there's always one determined to face in an opposite direction from the way the arranger desires.

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

Cartoons are the best stuff on TV. 'Wonder Showzen,' 'Aqua Teen,' 'SpongeBob,' and, of course, 'South Park' - one of the funniest shows ever made.

For a writer, capturing that elusive Christmas morning magic can be deeply problematic.