The average TV commercial of sixty seconds has one hundred and twenty half-second clips in it, or one-third of a second. We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking.

Men throw huge shadows on the lawn, don't they? Then, all their lives, they try to run to fit the shadows. But the shadows are always longer.

Every story I've written was written because I had to write it. Writing stories is like breathing for me; it is my life.

Venice was and is full of lost places where people put up for sale the last worn bits of their souls, hoping no one will buy.

Writing is not a serious business. It’s a joy and a celebration. You should be having fun with it.

The books leapt and danced like roasted birds, their wings ablaze with red and yellow feathers.

My parents read the comics to me, and I fell in love with comic strips. I've collected them all of my life. I have a complete collection of all the "Buck Rogers" Sunday funnies and daily paper strips, I have all of "Prince Valiant" put away, all of "Tarzan," which appeared in the Sunday funnies in 1932 right on up through high school. So I've learned a lot from reading comics as a child.