Human beings have got a lot of good, noble impulses inside them, and most people want to be good and do more good than they do evil. Hell, we've had nuclear weapons now for thirty or thirty-five years and nothing's happened yet. That in itself seems to be a miracle. If Reagan pushes the button or somebody pushes the button in Russia or somebody pushes it in Costa Rica, they can put a big tombstone in outer space that says, "We gave it a good try." Because we have.

Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment.

She did not know if her gift came from the lord of light or of darkness, and now, finally finding that she didn't care which, she wad overcome with almost indescribable relief, as if a huge weight, long carried, had slipped from her shoulders.

What happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality breaks and the glass begins to fly?

I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts.

You can't polish a turd.

Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.