“You appear to be a mass of contradictions," Dr Washburn said. "There's a subsurface violence almost always in control, but very much alive. There's also a pensiveness that seems painful for you, yet you rarely give vent to the anger that pain must provoke.”

“Characterization is integral to the theatrical experience.”

“I start every book with something that outrages me. I'm outraged by the FBI, the CIA, and computers that seem to have catalogued our lives. Power too often is accompanied by irresponsibility.”

“Indiscriminate use among unintelligent leads to chaos.”

“I get annoyed when a self-indulgent writer just shows off what he knows but doesn't really tell a story. To me storytelling is first a craft. Then if you're lucky, it becomes an art form. But first, it's got to be a craft.. You've got to have a beginning, middle and end. And I have sort of applied the theatrical principles to writing. Throw the story in the air and see what's going to happen.”

“Men and women walked casually about as they did on the main floor, every now and then stopping one another, exchanging pleasantries or scraps of relevantly irrelevant information. Gossip.”

“I fought...I fought and I fought...until I...couldn't remember any more.”

“there was no television in the Netherlands during the afternoons!”

“A corruption of intentions.”

“Strangers should meet in unfamiliar areas. It's comforting.”

“When the old men kill themselves, the cities are dying.”