I don't understand people whose gratification is a BMW. You don't know what joy is until you see a kid who was tortured get adopted by a family.

I believe my publisher has shown a great deal of faith in me over a lot of years but I'm not prepared to be so arrogant to say that the long-term literary value of my work would compensate them for a financial failure.

I don't take advances for my books.

We don't protect our young, and we tolerate predators of our own species.

People are pushing against the fabric of society all the time.

No politician is threatened by the child protective constituency, because it does not exist.

My life is triage.

Journalism is what maintains democracy. It's the force for progressive social change.

The idea that you're not a writer until you're published is a lie.

I don't sign contracts for my books.

I don't understand people whose gratification is a BMW. You don't know what joy is until you see a kid who was tortured get adopted by a family.

Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.

I'm in pursuit of what cannot be achieved: perfection.

A kid in an abusive home has far fewer rights than any POW. There is no Geneva Convention for kids.

Victimizers of children are the enemies of any so-called society.

Building a mechanical device for its appearance is like putting lace on a bowling ball.

I think people should be consumers of journalism.

The third person narrator, instead of being omniscient, is like a constantly running surveillance tape.

All children are born pure egoists. They perceive their needs to the exclusion of all others. Only through socialization do they learn that some forms of gratification must be deferred and others denied.

Ask any experienced defense lawyer: the real risks are for an accused person who is innocent. A guilty defendant has many more options available.

Courier 12 is the Type-O blood of fonts - works just as good for a 'N.Y. Times' op-ed as a screenplay or a short story.

Crime takes the pulse of a culture. It tells us the truth about us as a species.

Fighting means you could lose. Bullying means you can't. A bully wants to beat somebody; he doesn't want to fight somebody.

I did criminal defense work part-time, and that paid the bills for representing abused and neglected children... and for defending in juvenile court those kids the 'child protective system' had missed when it had the chance.

I hate bullies. I hate them. I'm not good enough with words to describe how much I hate them.

In some neighborhoods, if you want to walk down the streets, you've got two choices - look down, or look hard.

There is no Constitutional right to prey on others. The Internet is just a piece of technology, like the telephone. Society has the right to modify its uses.

While early childhood experiences may impel, they do not compel. In the end, evil is a matter of choice.

Without question, I've either got to be a writer, or I fail.

Life is a fight, but not everyone's a fighter. Otherwise, bullies would be an endangered species.

Camouflage doesnt help when the other guy is willing to defoliate the whole jungle.

Life is a ght but not everyones a ghter. Otherwise bullies would be an endangered species.

Most investigators dont even know what the word means. You stop the cops from using informants and the only crimes theyd ever solve would be those by deranged postal workers who come to work once too often.

If a train is coming at you, closing your eyes won't save you ... but if you look right at it, you at least have a chance to jump.

Young actors often don't think of the consequences of doing nudity or sex scenes. They want the role so badly that they agree to be exploited, and then end up embarrassing family, friends, and even strangers.

On the road to equality there is no better place for blacks to detour around American values than in forgoing its example in the treatment of its women and the organization of its family.

We're parents first, and once you have kids, everybody knows that you have priority lists. Number one is your family and everything else just kind of finds its place.

I have a project at HBO and one at the Family Channel coming that are being looked at. Aside from that I am not doing much more than playing golf and some skiing.

I didn't tell anybody about my plan because I was convinced my family or friends would stop me. I didn't think much about what would happen afterwards.

You know raising a family in the lifestyle of a professional athlete can be very difficult.

I love to see my family together. That's what life is about. It's about family.

Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.

It was an idea we had when Al was in the Senate - to organize and moderate an annual conference that would look at government policy through the lens of the family to help identify ways that the family can be supported and strengthened.

Even though we were all celebrities to a certain extent, we all looked at each other as family.

The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States.

A growing awareness of the depth of popular attachment to the family has led some liberals to concede that family is not just a buzzword for reaction.

I love my family.

I have other obligations now - the show, my family, my life... though I know that without my sobriety I wouldn't have any of those things.

When they were small and my wife really had no other responsibilities, except taking care of the family and all of us, it wasn't that big a deal. It was fun. Hey, we're going to Moscow. We're going to Italy. We're going to Toronto. We're going to New York.