I'm one of the lucky writers: plots come easily to me.

I get letters from readers who say that they have always hated reading, but somebody suggested one of my books, they actually finished the book and enjoyed it, and they're going on to read another book. I'm thrilled that they have figured out that reading is fun.

I wrote eight full-length adult novels in my twenties. None of them were published.

I decided to write short stories because they got rejected quicker.

I love all of it, thinking up the plots, getting to know the kids in the story, their parents, backyards, pizza toppings.

Actually my first eight books were historical novels, but they were never published.

I believe my readers are crazy about their parents and want to be just like them when they grow up.

I approach serious subjects, and I like to have the good guys win and have the parents among the good guys.

I'm one of the lucky writers: plots come easily to me.

If you write a story based on a real person, you're trapped by the details of the real person and his life. It gets in the way of writing your own story.

My favorite book is always the one I'm working on at the moment.

I love writing and do not know why it is considered such a difficult, agonizing profession.

People nearly always believe, and are willing to back it up with weapons and cruelty, that their religion and way of life is better than the other person's.

I believe my voice is pretty much the same. I've written 75 books, so I'm better at it now than I was earlier in my career.

We crash into each other just so we can feel something.

There is a safe spot within every tornado. My job is to find it.

Some people can be so close to you even if physically far they walk with you and stay near in every moment of your life.

The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it.

Some writers would be kinder than others, I'm sure. Hopefully they might describe my techniques as a mixture of tried and tested formulas - if it aint broke don't fix it - and unexpected twists.

I want to stand on a platform in the middle of Times Square and shout, 'You do not have to battle your Crohn's disease alone.'

A human being becomes human not through the casual convergence of certain biological conditions but through an act of will and love on the part of other people.

We become distracted from productive labors by our perceived opponents; we become focused on them and not on our larger calling to advance our nation; our debate becomes more about scoring points against an adversary and less about advancing our common cause.

I would always rather do a mediocre script with a great filmmaker than a great script with a mediocre filmmaker.

I like cooking, but I don't think I could be a chef. Everyone from the ground up does terrible hours, whether you've just walked in off the street and you've got no experience, to whether you're the head chef. You can work 14 or 15-hour days. It's really, really intense.

Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is doing a public service.

If life begins at 40, what is it that ends at 39?

I don't like to go to the gym very much if I can help it.

I believe the anthropogenic effect for climate change is still only one of the hypotheses to explain the variability of climate.

I was as eager a writer as I was a reader.

Ride the horse in the direction that it's going.

I am honored to serve on the Board of Visitors for Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Being the first board member from Latin America, I hope to provide insight into the economical, social and political issues facing the region, and continue to grow and strengthen this prestigious institution.

But nothing that can be said can begin to take away the anguish and the pain of these moments. Grief is the price we pay for love.

The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony.

Easy doesn't do it.

Being offended is part of being in the real world.

The Nation of Islam provides an antidote in the United States to fundamentalist Islam - which is why individuals from America have to go abroad to find radical teachings.

I think being nice and being safe is unfair to yourself when you have big dreams as a woman. I think you have to prepare yourself that not everyone in this world has the same personality... The one thing Ive chosen to be great at in my life is singing so why not be proud that Im great at it

Some of us do talk about women like objects which dehumanizes them.