“Remember, for every shot you fire, someone, somewhere, is making money.”

“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.”

“The point of life was to press on, to do the best you can, to make the world a better place.”

“Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.”

“(Stereotyping) is only for those without the imagination to see people as they are instead of being like someone else they understand.”

“An overnight success is ten years in the making.”

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