I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Nothing in life is easy. But that's no reason to give up. You'll be surprised what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it.After all, you only have one life, so you should try to make the most of it.

When I write a novel, every word is mine. I welcome suggestions from my editor, but in the end, I make all the final decisions.

Not counting Small Steps, I think Holes is my best book, in terms of plot, and setting, and the way the story revealed itself. It hasn’t changed my life, other than that I have more money than I did before I wrote it. I’m still too close to Small Steps to compare it to Holes.

Each beat told him he was still alive, at least for one more second.

In a way, it made him sad. He couldn't help but think that a hundred times zero was still nothing.

It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.

Give me a dollar or I'll spit on you.