I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares.

The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that I'm just plain not talented or skilful enough to write. That's the dilemma every storyteller faces. It is painful to fail. But it is far sadder when a storyteller stops wanting to try.

I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours. I think that's more intimate even than a kiss.

If you give orders and explain nothing, you might get obedience, but you'll get no creativity. If you tell them your purpose, then when your original plan is shown to be faulty, they'll find another way to achieve your goal. Explaining to your men doesn't weaken their respect for you, it proves your respect for them.

This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.

There is more good writing and good acting in any ten minutes of Twister than in, say, all of Citizen Kane.

This is what historians usually do, quibble about cause and effect when the point is, there are times when the world is in flux and the right voice in the right place can move the world. Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin, for instance. Bismark. Lenin.