There are no taboos. Every topic is open, however shocking. It is the way that the topics are handled that's important, and that applies whether it is a 15-year-old who is reading your book or someone who is 55.

I take real people and put them in extraordinary situations.

I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.

There are no taboos. Every topic is open, however shocking. It is the way that the topics are handled that's important, and that applies whether it is a 15-year-old who is reading your book or someone who is 55.

All the stories I'll ever need are right here on Main Street.

My dream was to be known as a writer and to be able to produce at least one book that would be read by people. That dream came true with the publication of my first novel - and all the rest has been a sweet bonus.

I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence.

I simply write with an intelligent reader in mind. I don't think about how old they are.

You seldom get a censorship attempt from a 14-year-old boy. It's the adults who get upset.

I had my bully, and it was excruciating. Not only the bully, but the intimidation I felt.

I can't remember a time when I wasn't trying to get something down on paper.

Family life was wonderful. The streets were bleak. The playgrounds were bleak. But home was always warm. My mother and father had a great relationship. I always felt 'safe' there.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

Sometimes life's so much cooler when you just don't know any better and all the painful lessons have not hammered your head open yet.

I am a very open, social, friendly person, and when it comes to people approaching me and asking for an autograph, I am totally cool with doing any of that. It's a lot of fun.

We Finns represent a very transparent and open-minded way of reaching political decisions.

Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring.

Slovakia's joining the OECD in 1999 is totally dependent on meeting economic reforms required such as transparency and legislation that permits fair and open conduct of trade and business.

What I have learned from my work up to now, is to try to be open, but also protect myself by not letting the good and the evil get too much importance.

So the thing that's beautiful about the Rolleiflex is that I open the camera up from the top and put my face in and that the camera's all about composition and all about light.

I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.

Doorman - a genius who can open the door of your car with one hand, help you in with the other, and still have one left for the tip.

I would never jeopardize classified information to be brought out to the public. This information is all open source. There is no reason to worry about classification. It is simply an attempt by bureaucrats to cover their rear ends.

Our aristocracy, unlike that of Europe, is open to all comers.

And when you see it the first time you put the film together, the roughest cut, is when you want to go home and open up your veins and get in a warm tub and just go away. And then it gradually, maybe, works its way back, somewhere toward that spot you were at before.

I like to think the price I paid by being open about my private life helped.

We did a different show every night. We'd open a show, and then two weeks later we'd open the next show. And two weeks later we'd open the third show until we had all eight running. And it was just one of the richest experiences I'd ever had in my theatrical life.

I'm open to getting more equipment, but I really won't have time to look into that until after the tour.

A great department store, easily reached, open at all hours, is more like a good museum of art than any of the museums we have yet established.

Fancy your having no sunshine in London yesterday! Here it was glorious, like full summer, and I sat up with the window wide open, listening to the discourse of two amorous thrushes.

I have a very open line of communication with both my children.

To play a good guy is nice because in a way, he is so open for answers.

If it wasn't for Abe Lincoln, I'd still be on the open market.

You have to open your mind. I like the ability to express myself in a deep way. It's the closest music to our humanity - it's like a folk music that rises up out of a culture.

The decision to open up Bahrain to embrace all people indiscriminately was fostered in me ever since I was a child.

In all feats of fire-eating it should be noted that the head is thrown well back, so that the flame may pass out of the open mouth instead of up into the roof, as it would if the head were held naturally.

If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn't worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it's life or death.

One of our most noble political tasks is to open up trust.

On sensitive issues, talk isn't cheap - it takes real courage to pry open topics nailed shut.

Try to open up your mind a little, and move away from rigid opinions of what people should do and be - unless you have been there.

We're very open and outspoken about our faith and our beliefs. We also talk about our doubts, our moments of insecurities. We talk about it all day, how we're inspired by God. We recognize little miracles every day, and that's how we're raising our daughter.

We know that the airports are not protected as they should be protected. The terminals are public areas, wide open - anyone can go and walk at any terminal he wants.

But I believe in fair trade, and I will tell you, I have many, many friends heading up corporations, and people that do just business in China, they say it's virtually impossible. It's very, very hard to come into China. And yet, we welcome them with open arms.

We have an open society. No one will come and take me away for saying what I am saying. But they don't have to, if they can control how many people hear it. And that's how they do it.

In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning.

Look whether it be indifferently, as well for sins secret as open, what you find to be your best cordials to comfort you, whether God's Word, or natural means.

This issue, if not addressed, leaves any President, including George Bush, open to the criticism that they are essentially ignoring the destruction of the nation and I believe that with all my heart.

Part of keeping space open is not to try to choose a form - to spend more time thinking about content, and let form take care of itself.

Working overseas is more difficult in that it's much more complicated to get people to open their hearts to you and to tell you information.