I often daydream about the future, thinking of the world in 100, 200 years, imagining what it looks like, feels like. I hope that my books are like ghosts that will inhabit this future.

Religion is the great balm of existence because it takes us outside ourselves, connects us to something larger

The ideas get under your skin. I am honored and deeply excited by the thought that the next generation of writers, or whomever, are influenced by these books.

One person reads the book, and cannot help telling a friend. That is vastly superior to any kind of advertisement, or clever magazine article. That is also the great power of the internet, where people share their opinions without the annoying screen of the media, and so much of the presence of my books has come from the Internet. It's a new era, a new form of war, and I embrace it.

There are people that don't need to run towards adversity. They grew up in circumstances where it's forced upon them. Other people lead, pushier lives. So there are all kinds of forms of adversity in the world.

I just think there's something in the non-fiction form that allows you to see things clearly, if you're patient.

The problem with human beings is that they can't sit alone in a room for more than an hour.