If everyone could understand the working of a psychopath's mind, we undoubtedly would be closer to insanity ourselves.

But I think, and hope, that the novels can be understood and enjoyed as science fiction, on their own terms.

Words are the light and sound of our existence, the heat lightning by which the night is illuminated.

Luckily, even as a young man not yet become himself, John Bridgens had two things besides indecision that kept him from self-destruction - books and a sense of irony.

I despair at the rise of modern violence. I truly give in to despair at times, that deep, futureless pit of despair.... I watch the American slaughterhouse, the casual attacks on popes, presidents, and uncounted others, and I wonder if there are many more out there with the Ability or if butchery has simply become the modern way of life.

Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.

Nobody gets beyond a petroleum economy. Not while there's petroleum there.