A plot without action is like pasta without garlic, like Dolly Parton without cleavage, and like a writer without his similes.
Faced with the challenge of an endless universe, Man will be forced to mature further, just as the Neanderthal-faced with an entire planet-had no choice but to grow away from the tradition of savagery.
A long walk and grooming with a well-mannered dog is a Zen experience that leaves you refreshed and in a creative frame of mind.
All I asked was that I be spared surprises, although, in this world of six billion souls, all acting with free will and too many with audacity, surprises are inevitable, too few of them are the kind that make you smile and that lift your heart.
Behind every closed door might wait a thief of minds and a collector of souls.
We are coming out of a century that was taught that one way of looking at the world, that one form of behavior, is as valid as another. The idea of true evil has been blown away.
In the end, it’s all about perseverance.
What most people find important, you do not. This is Wisdom. To what you believe is important, you are ready to give your mind, heart, and soul. This is Grace.
Few human beings give of themselves to another as a dog gives of itself.
When I’m working on a novel, I work 70-hour weeks.
When tempest tossed, embrace chaos.
If I drive myself to the brink of my ability, then I don’t get stale or bored.
Loving the ideal more than the reality is the cause of all the misery the human species creates for itself.
When life hands us a beutiful bouquet of flowers we stare at it in cautious expectation of a bee.
If wishes were filet mignon, we’d always eat well at dinner.
It is music that speaks to the deepest reaches of your soul, and you are lifted higher, ever higher, by the adagio, in my opinion more so even than in any of the masses that Beethoven composed.
Your sense of responsibility to others can never be excessive.
The desire to write well can never be fulfilled without hard work.
Modesty is related to diffidence, diffidence is related to shyness, Shyness is a synonym for timidity, timidity is a characteristic of the meek, the meek do not inherit the Earth, they serve those who are self confident and self assertive.
One man’s idea of perfect order is another man’s chaos.
I have avoided becoming stale by putting a little water on the plate, lying on the plate, and having myself refreshed in a toaster oven for 23 minutes once every month.