The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

I am frightened by today's world, terrified by it. I think that comes out in the books. I'm afraid of big things. Some of these schools have three thousand kids, and even the size of the schools frightens me. Big government frightens me; so does big defense.

You seldom get a censorship attempt from a 14-year-old boy. It's the adults who get upset.

Cities fell. Earth opened. Planets tilted. Stars plummeted. And the awful silence.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper.

It doesn't matter how big the body, it's what you do with it.

I'm always telling myself as I write that I'm not really writing a novel; I'm just going to fool around with a character or an idea.