People are always neglecting something they can do in trying to do something they can't do.
Don't abuse your friends and expect them to consider it criticism.
Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies.
A theory is no more like a fact than a photograph is like a person.
The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
I want to believe humanity has not forgotten how to explore.
You may lose by it now and then, but it will be a loss well gained if you do.
FABLEHAVEN: None who enter will leave unchanged. Trespassers will be turned to stone.
It's a cliche that the Senate is broken, and like most cliches, it's true.
People in grief need someone to walk with them without judging them.
Janet Malcolm's probably the writer I most admire and who's most influenced me.
I don't outline; I listen to a kind of whisper inside the material.
What if these events the Bible says will happen, happens in our lifetime?
... sometimes in life, you either laugh or you cry. And I prefer to laugh.
In a mystery, the sleuth must be believably involved and emotionally invested in solving the crime.
I didn't want to write a book that suggested that magic good/technology bad.
I don't want my readers slowed down by long passages of narrative.
So often when we historicize material, we use this big wide-angle lens.
There are holes in our lives that can never be filled - not really, not ever.
I never wanted to be anything but a writer, and I never let go of it.
In writing, I've found, playing it safe and familiar is no way to energize anybody.