Keep at it! The one talent that's indispensable to a writer is persistence. You must write the book, else there is no book. It will not finish itself. Do not try to commit art. Just tell the damned story.

Anti-Catholicism is the last respectable prejudice. You can't hate black people anymore, of course, and you can't hate homosexuals anymore, but you can hate all the Catholics you want.

In battle, you forgive a man anything except an unwillingness to take risks. Sometimes you have to put it on the line.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.

Switzerland is a land where crime is virtually unknown, yet most Swiss males are required by law to keep in their homes what amounts to a portable, personal machine gun.

The good old days are now.

Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.