There is very little that is accidental in my work. I believe in serendipity for developments of plot, but the actual writing is arrived at by very h….

You have to accept the critical reviews if they treat you with respect. Actually, it's one person's opinion. So, it's a concern but not an overriding….

It would be nice to avoid the world, to leave it and all its threats and unhappiness. Not to die or anything like that, but to find a place of solitu….

We all start out with the same alphabet. We are all unique. Talent is not the most important thing --- discipline and dedication are. Craft can be le….

You seldom get a censorship attempt from a 14-year-old boy. It's the adults who get upset..

Kids tell me all the time, "I don't know how you do it, but that's us in the book." That's the kind of response you want, and I can't sacrifice it fo….

The earliest influence on me was the movies of the thirties when I was growing up. Those were stories. If you look at them now, you see the developme….

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find ….

As much as there is joy in writing, there's always the little bit of terror to keep you on edge, on your toes. It is a strange way to occupy yourself….

A new sickness invaded Jerry, the sickness of knowing what he had become, another animal, another beast, another violent person in a violent world, i….

I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind. I don't think about how old they are..

I sometimes get tired because I can seldom read a book for pleasure. I'm like the play reviewer who happens to go to a play on an off day and can't h….

I take real people and put them in extraordinary situations..

It came to me that hell would not be fire and smoke after all but arctic, everything white and frigid. Hell would be not anger but indifference..

I have lived a thousand lives lost within the pages of a book..

I'm weary of the battle. But a tired fighter can still be a fighter..

A writer must take risks, defy the odds, be a bit obsessed and a little mad..

Don't miss the bus, boy. You're missing a lot of things in the world, better not miss that bus..

Do I dare disturb the universe? Yes, I do, I do. I think. Jerry suddenly understood the poster--the solitary man on the beach standing upright and al….

Archie became absolutely still, afraid that the rapid beating of his heart might betray his sudden knowledge, the proof of what he'd always suspected….

You could reason with someone who was halfway educated and appeal to his intelligence, but I felt helpless in the face of utter stupidity..