The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages - as if the savages weren't dangerous enough already.

Our “neoconservatives” are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.

A genius is always on duty; even his dreams are tax deductible.

Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear-the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break....I sometimes choose to think, no doubt perversely, that man is a dream, thought an illusion, and only rock is real. Rock and sun.

Be a half-assed crusader, a part-time fanatic. Don't worry to much about the fate of the world. Saving the world is only a hobby. Get out there and enjoy the world, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, husbands wives; climb mountains, run rivers, get drunk, do whatever you want to do while you can, before it's too late.

I've never yet read a review of one of my own books that I couldn't have written much better myself.

The night I filled an inside straight: Even a blind hog's gonna root up an acorn once in a while.