It is often said that reading is a gift, but to my mind that is an insufficient description, for the size of the gift of reading is so vast that it is difficult to see what is outside its wrapping.

Even though there are no ways of knowing for sure, there are ways of knowing for pretty sure.

the table of elements does not contain one of the most powerful elements that make up our world, and that is the element of surprise.

The trick to following someone without getting caught is to follow somebody who doesn't think they're being followed.

My work is very dear to me, and certainly I have had all the emotional highs and lows that go with trying to get it to an audience. But I do have some kind of detachment that seems somewhat unusual in my trade. I'm a writer who writes every day. I don't have a period of months where I can't get anything done and I wander around tearing my hair out. When I come back from a book tour, for instance, I might have one day where I sleep late and then check my e-mail, and then go for a walk, and then the next day I'm really itching to get back at writing a story.

The only thing he cares about.

After a certain age, you couldn't even say where you were from. You went someplace, and lived there. And then you went someplace else.