Originality and creativity are nothing but the result of the wise management of combinations. The creative genius combines more rapidly, and with a greater critical sense of what gets tossed out and what gets saved, the same material that the failed genius has to work with.

All the religious wars that have caused blood to be shed for centuries arise from passionate feelings and facile counter-positions, such as Us and Them, good and bad, white and black.

Even today, I frequently meet scientists who, outside their own narrow discipline, are superstitious.

Hypotyposis is the rhetorical effect by which words succeed in rendering a visual scene.

I have to admit that I only read War and Peace when I was 40. But I knew the basics before then.

People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged.

I love the secrecy of writing fiction. When I write a novel, I don't tell anybody what I'm doing. I'm living in my private world. And it's a great sensation.