Any allegiance to a deity or concept or universal principal which put obedience above decent behavior toward an innocent human being evil.

The Great Change is when humankind accepts its role as part of the natural order of the universe instead of its role as a cancer

The best advice that an accomplished writer could give a beginning writer is probably, "Find your slide and then grease it." Almost every writer that wants a rewarding career, in terms of money and status and number of readers, finally finds a certain genre or certain style that he or she sticks with until reaching a critical mass of readership. And I've violated this from the get-go.

Its hard to die. Harder to live

Speaking as a novelist myself, I know that members of our profession live in our imaginations as much or more as we inhabit what people call 'the real world.

The never-ending competition between writers hasn't changed between 1868 and 2000. I used to belong to writers' workshops with other professionals, but that becomes impossible after a while. Everyone's on a different step of the career ladder. Jealousy doesn't have to erupt into murder and burying someone in Wells Cathedral, but it is always there.

Religion seems to have always offered us that false duality ... the silences of infinite space or the cozy comfort of inner certainty.