I've never been in charge of my stories, they've always been in charge of me. As each new one has called to me, ordering me to give it voice and form and life, I've followed the advice I've shared with other writers over the years: jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

I am madness maddened when it comes to books, writers, and the great granary silos where their wits are stored.

If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it.

Don't they get afraid, then?" "They have a religion for that.

He raged for hours. And the skeleton, ever the frail and solelmn philosopher, hung quietly inside, saying not a word, suspended like a delicate insect within a chrysalis, waiting and waiting.

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.