No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often as important as what you do read.

Like most writers, I look back on all of my finished works with utter regret, and the trouble with writing a series of novels is that you have to go back and read them, and make sure that you haven't forgotten anything you've created, and then when you do that, you're faced with your own mistakes on every trick, from the wrong word in places to entirely the wrong incident.

There was something I was always very good at, however, and that was teaching myself not to be frightened while frightening things are going on. It is difficult to do this, but I had learned. It is simply a matter of putting one’s fear aside, like the vegetable on the plate you don’t want to touch until all of your rice and chicken are gone, and getting frightened later, when one is out of danger. Sometimes I imagine I will be frightened for the rest of my life because of all of the fear I put aside during my time in Stain’d-by-the-Sea.

Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby - awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.

Friends can make you feel that the world is smaller and less sneaky than it really is, because you know people who have similar experiences.

We are a nation of children letting horrible things happen, and flunking Calc.

The key to good eavesdropping is not getting caught.