If I had simply wanted to trade on an insult to Islam, I could have done it in a sentence rather than writing a 250,000-word novel, a work of fiction.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

I can't say that my disability has helped my work, but it has allowed me to concentrate on research without having to lecture or sit on boring committees.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

It's a cliche, but true, that writing is intensely solitary and at times really lonely. I sit in one room and talk to squirrels and blue jays all day.