A new sickness invaded Jerry, the sickness of knowing what he had become, another animal, another beast, another violent person in a violent world, inflicting damage, not disturbing the universe but damaging it.

I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.

I'm weary of the battle. But a tired fighter can still be a fighter.

A writer must take risks, defy the odds, be a bit obsessed and a little mad.

When people say they write for themselves, that's probably what they do. I will admit that I don't write for myself; I write to be read. I've got the reader in my mind all the time.

It came to me that hell would not be fire and smoke after all but arctic, everything white and frigid. Hell would be not anger but indifference.

You bring up your children to be self-reliant and independent and they double-cross you and become self-reliant and independent.