My favorite period is World War II, and I'm in the middle of writing my fourth novel set in that era.

When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.

To someone standing in the nave, looking down the length of the church toward the east, the round window would seem like a huge sun exploding into innumerable shards of gorgeous color.

Culture clash is terrific drama.

There was a very serious communist strain among American intellectuals before the war. America was a more tolerant place in those days, and Communists were not treated as pariahs. That ended with the McCarthy era.

Trusting someone was like holding a little water in your cupped hands - it was so easy to spill the water, and you could never get it back.

It's great that in the German language I've sold almost 30 million books. Isn't that amazing?