We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.

He found Pendergast's cool gaze on him, and he fidgeted. He'd forgotten about those eyes. They made you feel like you had just been stripped of your secrets.

The mandalas were meant to be objects of contemplation, aids to meditation, their proportions magically balanced to purify and calm the mind. To stare at a mandala was to experience, if only briefly, the nothingness that is at the heart of enlightenment.

I need to write in a small room - the smaller the better. I can't write in a big room where someone might sneak up behind my back.

One can reach the gates of hell just as easily by short steps as by large.

Hubris and science are incompatible.

It's a very bad habit, but one I find hard to break.