I like to give people novels I think they would like, on no particular occasion - just when we're in a bookstore together. I like to receive reference books on my birthday.

Bad circumstances have a way of ruining things that would otherwise be pleasant.

The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing” is a phrase that refers to times when people ought to know, but don’t know, about something that is happening very close to them. For instance, you ought to know about the man who watches you when you sleep.

When I wrote Rick, I had the idea that I would take the plot of nearly every opera and turn it into a dark film, which is something I still may do.

How do you do?" said Violet. "How do you do?" said Klaus. "Odo yow!" said Sunny.

It doesn't take courage to kill someone,' Klaus said. 'It takes a severe lack of moral stamina.

Miracles are like meatballs, because nobody can exactly agree on what they are made of, where they come from, or how often they should appear.