German readers are much like Brits or Americans: They read for the thrill of it, the occasional shudder down the spine, knowing it's not real - but looking over their shoulders anyway, just in case.

But other vampire stories? Well, no, I really haven't read too many, and I can't say I'm crazy about romantic vampires anyway - to me the vampire is simply an evil monster.

A literary critic is someone who can't write, but who loves to show he would have been a wonderful writer if only he could!

I'll know when the ideas aren't fresh anymore. And I'll know when writing doesn't give me a thrill anymore.

German readers are much like Brits or Americans: They read for the thrill of it, the occasional shudder down the spine, knowing it's not real - but looking over their shoulders anyway, just in case.

Now, after 18 years, not a sign of Lovecraft in my work.

Writers are in the entertainment business, and it gives me lots of pleasure to entertain my readers.

I should think just about every young writer - which I was at the time - would be influenced by HPL. As an American writer of weird fiction, he was at the top of the class.

But there's a little guy who sits astride my brain with a whip, and if I'm away from the machine for more than a couple of hours during the day, this little guy's lashing away.

If I had killed Crow off I can think of least six novels I would never have written, 400,000 words' worth of very necessary experience.

If, like Harry Keogh, I could talk to the dead - God, there are an awful lot of people I would like to speak to! Not least my father. Being in the army for 22 years, I didn't see enough of him, and I know there are a great many things I could have learned from him.

But I've found that to talk too much about movies is the kiss of death. If it happens then it happens, is all.

And I have to consider myself fortunate, because there are plenty of writers who spend most of a lifetime looking for that certain something without ever finding it.

We've got one life and the older we get the more we come to realize how short it is.

Now, when I was in the Army, writing was my hobby.

The Army was my bread and butter.

I have friends who read my books in Greek.

There are lots of other things that I haven't done, places I haven't seen. So eventually I'll have to find time for those things while there still is time.

The amazing thing now is that most of those so-called critics who were telling me to find my own voice seem to have lost theirs.

While I have never learned to use a computer, I am surrounded by family and friends who carry information to me from blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and various websites.

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.

The doctor gave me several warnings: Never tell anyone unless necessary, because I might be ostracized. Call it 'seizure disorder,' not epilepsy, because fewer people would be frightened. Try to choose a profession as free from stress as possible.

On Monday mornings, I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.

'Honesty' in social life is often used as a cover for rudeness. But there is quite a difference between being candid in what you're talking about, and people voicing their insulting opinions under the name of honesty.

There are thousands of inspirational stories waiting to be told about young women who yearn for a great education. They are stories of struggle and stories of success, and they will inspire others to take action and work to change lives.

I've had a lot of voices tell me what I should be making. Personally, I would much rather live and die by my own hand. If my stuff sucks, then at least I made it suck. I didn't allow some person, some old dude in a suit, to make it suck for me.

The Western media has depicted the Afghan woman as a helpless, weak individual. I have said it before, and I shall repeat it: The Afghan woman is strong. The Afghan woman is resourceful. The Afghan woman is resilient.

Modesty is a lubricant for unpleasant intrusions.

For me, decorating perfection means eclectic styles and collections of beautiful things like pottery, pillboxes and match strikers.

I.Q. deficiency. There are some people who are an order of fries short of a Happy Meal, and what is often a characteristic about every one of these people is that they don't know it. They have no idea how incompetent or stupid they are. It's the exact opposite. They have the loftiest, highest self-image.

There is an incompatibility between literary creation and political activity.

The other guy I dug a lot was Burroughs because he was a smart man already; he learned it through the druggie pool - the street scene of an old aristocratic kind of man.

We try to show that violence has a consequence - when you create violence, it turns against you.

Blogs are evil. Actually, the blogs aren't as evil as blog comments.

Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.

It's a completely different thing, but there's so many things I learned from being an athlete that helped me in business. The only risk is not taking the risk. You've got to take that step.

I'm not a big shopper.

It's my whole life of being the little guy and having a little chip on my shoulder, from year to year trying to prove myself, and at the end of the day to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame is a very special honor for me.

We're about to shoot an episode on Air Force One, for instance, and we're going to take liberties, small liberties, with Air Force One, as we take small liberties with our White House set.

I wanted a perfect ending. Now Ive learned the hard way that some poems dont rhyme and some stories dont have a clear beginning middle and end. Life is about not knowing having to change taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing whats going to happen next.

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

Life has meaning only if you do what is meaningful to you.

I've been in a situation where I was after the money.