I think people should be consumers of journalism.

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.

My favorite thing is still journalism. I'm almost 50. This has been my life ever since I was in college.

I suggest that what we want to do is not to leave to posterity a great institution, but to leave behind a great tradition of journalism ably practiced in our time.

The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

I don't think Fox News or Rush Limbaugh need Clinton it turns out. I think there's a hunger out there for - whether it's on the left or right - a more lively and provocative type of political journalism. I think Salon and Fox on the other side have both benefited from that.

Surely the glory of journalism is its transience.

If anyone was talking about journalism in the '50s - it was Edward R.Murrow.

In general, science journalism concerns itself with what has been published in a handful of peer-reviewed journals - Nature, Cell, The New England Journal of Medicine - which set the agenda.

The Defense Department's plan to ban newspaper reporters from pool coverage of military operations is incredible. It reveals the administration to be out of touch with journalism, reality and the First Amendment.

Screenplays I didn't really care about, journalism, travel books, getting my writer friends to write about their dreams or something. I just determined to write the books I had to write.

I fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism.

Journalism as theater is what TV news is.

Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law; in journalism, literature and art.

The biggest problem in rock journalism is that often the writer's main motivation is to become friends with the band. They're not really journalists; they're people who want to be involved in rock and roll.

Journalism is a kind of profession, or craft, or racket, for people who never wanted to grow up and go out into the real world.

Stanford had no journalism program so I just learned by doing, effectively.