Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories.

Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories.

If they aren't real enough to surprise me, then they aren't real enough to go on the page.

I ride horseback - arthritic knees permitting - or listen to opera. Sometimes I cook. I used to do needlework, but it's hard on my hands now, so I only do it occasionally, but I like it. And, of course, I read.

I'm not a good collaborator in general.

I outline fairly extensively because I'm usually dealing with real events. I don't need to give myself as much information as I used to, but I still like to have two pages of outline for every projected 100 pages of manuscript.

Isn't that an odd philosophy for a vampire?

Common folk didn't have last names in the 8th and 9th centuries.

Very few editors worry about heresy - their goals are much too commercial, thank goodness.

Providing a writer isn't put off by conventions - and some are - attending them can be a nice break from the necessary isolation of writing.

I think it is probably more important to attend specialized conventions for a journeyman writer than any other, but it's useful at all stages of a career, if for nothing else, to find out how the industry is working at any given time.

When you're a mid-list writer, it pays to write fast.

I understand the human instinct to want to create a nest and possess things, to show them off, but for me personally, it became less and less interesting.

When I was in the California legislature in the '80s, the organic growers, who were sort of the small hippie farmers in those days, brought it to my attention that there were no regulations on organic labeling. In essence, anybody could just grow a thing any way they wanted and put 'organic' on it.

I've been an REM fan since I was a little girl. I would jump around to 'Stand' in the mirror.

We know that we are not collectively guilty, so how can we accuse any other nation, no matter what some of its people have done, of being collectively guilty?

I live in L.A. and I do have wonderful friends; I moved there when I was 19 so I developed a close knit group of friends, none of whom are actors, none of which are Australian, but I couldn't do it long term.

When I was filming 'Ouija,' there were some elements in that that really creeped me out.

Friendship requires great communication.

I make more movies than I see.

It is through disappointment that I must learn to never accept defeat but to always come up with a brand new plan and find a solution.

Politicians are good at saying how Government must do more, but we must also think carefully about where Government should do less.

There's a very small percentage of people that take limos to school and have $2000 handbags - no one in my high school had that!

Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.

The important consideration is not how long we can live but how well we can learn the lesson of life and discharge our duties and obligations to God and to one another.

There are two other SLA members who have been granted immunity and then also, one of the SLA members had confessed to two other people, and those people, I'm sure, will be called as witnesses, as they were at the grand jury.

I'm so optimistic, I'd go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and take the tartar sauce with me.

In romance, we feel the need to zoom in and expound on our partner's foibles in intimate detail; in friendship, we tend to do the opposite, avoiding confrontation through fear, lethargy or both.

In November, the earth is growing quiet. It is making its bed, a winter bed for flowers and small creatures. The bed is white and silent, and much life can hide beneath its blankets.

It's impossible in heptathlon to have a proper rivalry - you're spending two days together and seven events and dedicate your life to it. It's like a marathon: two days of mental and physical exhaustion.

Very little changed fundamentally, except that the proud German soldier had turned into a defeated bundle of misery and the great German army had disintegrated.

For me the criterion of a good photograph is that it is unforgettable.

A good leader will seek the wisdom of others. After all no man is an island

I really love being alive. I love my family and my work. I love the opportunity I have to do things. That's what happiness is.

I've been blessed to be one of those guys who's looked at as a fashion-forward type of guy.

Every public company depends to some extent on the trust of its investors.