The way this whole novel thing came together was, I sold them one bill of goods and then didn't communicate very well. I am like Captain Run-on Sentence.

The way this whole novel thing came together was, I sold them one bill of goods and then didn't communicate very well. I am like Captain Run-on Sentence.

I had this whole ritual with my mother making the bed with me inside it so I would be invisible.

When we had to do book reports, I would pick a book that no one read and just make it up and turn that in. I got praised for my imagination.

I collect things that just look retarded.

I picked books by their covers - the worse the cover, the more I wanted to read it.

I miss my Dad. My Dad loved cheesy monster movies, so we'd have Godzilla movie marathons. Those are some of my favorite memories, laughing at how the monster outfits were so bad, like black garbage bags for heads.

At 12 I dropped out of school but I had lost interest in it at a much earlier age. For me, school was very very stressful.

I definitely have managed to overcome dyslexia now to become a fully functional human being but things were a lot more difficult when I was younger.

I didn't read at all until I was 12. I just couldn't. It was too frustrating.

I think what my father appreciated was the science experiment of life. He had these kids, and they had their own experiences. He wanted us to discover the world for ourselves.

I would ask my parents something, but then go to my siblings. We were encouraged to bounce ideas off everyone.

I've always wanted to have a book published - it was a dream of mine, but the thought of actually writing a book made me feel really sick.

My father would often work all night and sleep during the day, so for us, dinner might be pancakes, and breakfast might be beef stroganoff.

My parents told us how they felt but never imposed their beliefs on us, although I appreciate I got a healthy sense of democracy from them.

As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not be reduced to a single peak acceleration. In fact, a full frequency of vibrations occurs.

I love 'Annie Hall'; I will always come back to that film again and again. Diane Keaton has been such an inspiration to me. She always brings humour, but complexity, and I love watching her on screen. She's got real charisma.

The alliance in Jammu and Kashmir is one of the most important developments on the contemporary political scene.

There's nothing automatic about political change, about liberation.

In my work, I just want to tell a story and help people go on a journey. I'm glad any fans that I do have, and I'm usually not aware of it until I get out there or read a message board. I want to thank everyone who follows my work.

There are three lessons in philanthropy - one, involve the family, especially the spouse. She can be a remarkable driver of your initiative. Two, you need to build an institution, and you need to scale it up. Choose a leader for philanthropy whom you trust. Three, philanthropy needs patience, tenacity and time.

I say if you are here illegally and are displaying and waving the Mexican flag, you should go back to Mexico and fly that flag there.

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation - not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago.

Our resolution urges all Latin American and Caribbean countries to designate al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations.

I like mellow music. I like some jazz. But I'm not a big hard rock guy.

And this week, I am proposing legislation to strengthen our Open Records laws to make public access to our public records surer, faster, and more comprehensive.

I spend a lot of time thinking about this business of letting go - letting go of the children God gives to us for such a brief time before they go off on their own; letting go of old homes, old friends, old places and old dreams.

We all have dark shadows in our self that come out every now and then.

I feel like I personally have been lucky.

In 1998, I started a blog, something I could control very easily and update at my own whim.

We found ourselves in a hole that I didn't dig, but I have dug, dug and dug to try to get out of that hole.

Ernest Rutherford's 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry wasn't given for the nuclear power station - he wouldn't have survived that long - it was given for showing how interesting atomic physics could be.

Those who have gone through a divorce know the pain and special challenges of raising a child under such circumstances.

In a media culture, we not only judge strangers by how they look but by the images of how they look. So we want attractive pictures of our heroes and repulsive images of our enemies.

There was no way I could not do 'Finding Dory.'

Today is your own. Tomorrow perchance may never come.

Well, it's so hard for books to take off. You give years of your life to something that probably won't happen, so when it does, it feels a little... unjust.

If I have a really bad cook or a bad manager or bad sous-chef, I previously would have fired them or lost my temper. But now I realize that if I'm so right, then I should be able to communicate it so clearly that they get it.

I don't race cars.