"Guilt at least has a purpose; it tells us we've violated some ethical code. Ditto for remorse. Those feelings are educational; they manufacture wisdom. But regret-regret is useless."

“No I don't really write thinking about specific actors because it can get in the way a little bit.”

Source : "Lorene Scafaria: Happily Ever After (Without The Ever After)". Interview with Gillian Mohney, www.interviewmagazine.com. June 22, 2012.

“If I go to London, everyone wants to talk about Damien Hirst. I'm just not interested in him. Never have been.”

“When illness enters a home, not only does it take hold of a body. It also weaves a dark web between hearts, a web where hope is trapped.”

“When it came time to make the audiobook, Audible did an ingenious thing: they asked both Wil Wheaton and Amber Benson to record entire versions of the book. As the author, I'm impressed with Audible's commitment to my narrative -- and I'm geeking out that both Wil and Amber are reading my book. This is fantastic.”

“That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non-conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose.”

Source : "A Plea for the Open Mind and Free Discussion" (speech), Albany, N.Y., 24 Oct. 1952

“Becoming a writer means being creative enough to find the time and the place in your life for writing.”

“Dictators are interesting, no?”

“As science is more and more subject to grave misuse as well as to use for human benefit it has also become the scientist's responsibility to become aware of the social relations and applications of his subject, and to exert his influence in such a direction as will result in the best applications of the findings in his own and related fields. Thus he must help in educating the public, in the broad sense, and this means first educating himself, not only in science but in regard to the great issues confronting mankind today.”