"We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts."

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

"I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it."

"I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it."

"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

"Americans are far more remarkable than we give ourselves credit for. We've been so busy damning ourselves for years. We've done it all, and yet we don't take credit for it."

"If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder."

"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories."

"Love is easy, and I love writing. You can't resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you're in love."

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."

"Love is the answer to everything. It's the only reason to do anything. If you don't write stories you love, you'll never make it. If you don't write stories that other people love, you'll never make it."

"Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall."

"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future."

"Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for."

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out."

"My stories run up and bite me on the leg - I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off."

"We are anthill men upon an anthill world."

"You fail only if you stop writing."

"We are an impossibility in an impossible universe."

"The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible."

"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me.After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together."

"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things."

"Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down."

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

"If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you."

"I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories."