“Colleges typically did not tell you that ninety percent of your education came after you hung the parchment on the wall. People might ask for a rebate.”

“Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.”

“Life was such a strange thing, so permanent when one had it, so fleeting when it was lost- and those who lost it could never tell you what it was like, could they?”

“I understand why we do that now. It’s a help, not a threat. It’s something to remind you how important words are. Ideas are important. Principles are important. Words are important. Your word is the most important of all. Your word is who you are.”

“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else.”

“Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.”

“Christ, how did you ever get this screwed up! his mind demanded ofhim. He knew the answer, but even that was not a full explanation.Different segments of the organism called John Terrance Kelly knewdifferent parts of the whole story,but somehow they'd never all come together, leaving the separatefragments of what had ...once been a tough, smart, decisive and to blunderabout in confusion - and despair! There was a happy thought.”