Once again, we shall have to operate not only outside the box, but outside the room containing the box.

Once again, we shall have to operate not only outside the box, but outside the room containing the box.

The wise and good are outnumbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid.

There are so many journalists out there, I hate to say it, who are lazy and don't do their research - and it shows.

A human being creates complexity by writing a novel on the surface of paper; a weather system creates complexity by writing waves on the surface of an ocean. What is the difference between the information carried in the words of a novel and the information carried on the waves of the sea? Listen, and the waves will speak, and someday, I tell you, you will write your thoughts on the surface of the sea.

When I'm writing fiction I'm thinking, God, this is so hard - I have to make all this stuff up! I wish I were writing a nonfiction book where all the facts are laid out and I don't have to be so much at sea.

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.