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

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.

I became hooked on the idea of being able to shoot an image and process it myself, and end up with a product.

After I'd produced about two dozen pen and ink drawings, one evening I decided that they needed poems to accompany them. I still have no idea where that notion came from, but it took me about two hours to produce verses for these creatures.

Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well.

What's fascinating is that when you write a script, it's almost a stream of consciousness. You have an idea that it means something, but you're not always sure what. Then when you get on the set, the actors teach you.

I also do not like the idea of soft money, these issue ads - people don't know where the money is coming from, millions and millions of dollars outside of the control of a candidate - there's no accountability.

From the beginning, the series has been story driven - I began with a story idea - but research feeds it.

Then I decided I couldn't just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction.

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?

There is sometimes a peculiar confusion in the West that equates progress to whatever is recent or whatever is new, and it is time we understood that progress has nothing to do with the chronology of an idea.

The idea of licking stamps seemed great fun for me.

Learn about the world, the way it works, any kind of science and anthropology, it's really an interesting place we live in. Evolution is a really fantastic idea, even more than the idea of God I think.

It's slightly complicated for people to grasp the idea of a head of state in human form.

As far as I know, only a small minority of mathematicians, even of those with Platonist views, accept the idea that there may be mathematical facts which are true but unknowable.

So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.

I'm into the idea of responsibility and edification and these things have found me and I have found them. I wanted to be in the movie and I made it known to Mike.