Nelson DeMille

“There are a lot of books about the passing of the English aristocracy, but the vast majority of Long Islanders don't understand their own backyard. It's a private preserve.”

“What these people were trying to create or re-create here in this new world is beyond me. I can't put myself in their minds or their hearts, but I can sympathize with their struggle for an identity, with their puzzlement, which has troubled Americans from the very beginning - Who are we, where do we fit in, where are we going?”

“Even the most radical Islamic terrorist would not want to see the revered holy city of Medina go up. It would be like losing the Vatican in Rome.”

“Chemical and biological attacks are scary and will kill a lot of people but don't rise to the level of nuclear.”

“A lot of who you were in middle age was determined before you had a chance to manipulate, control, or eve understand the things around you. It was no mystery, he thought, why some old people's minds returned to their youth; the wonder of those years, the discoveries, the first experience with the dirty secret of death, and the first stirrings of lust and love were indelible, drawn in luminous colors on clean canvas. Indeed, the first sex act was so mind-boggling that most people could still remember it clearly twenty, thirty, sixty years later.”

“I don't name sources.”

“Psychology is a soft weapon but you can take outmore enemy battalions with leaflets and radio broadcasts than with high explosives.”

“You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger.”

“I used the pen name because I knew I wanted to write better novels under my own name someday.”

“I read 'Time', 'Newsweek' and 'The Economist'.”

“I tried to picture a bunch of guys in blue suits running around a beachside neighborhood, knocking on doors and flashing Fed creds. That should cause a stampede of illegal aliens heading south.”

“I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting.”

“G.I. humor is similar to cop humor.”

“There is no terra incognito left.”

“We're all pilgrims on the same journey - but some pilgrims have better road maps.”

“I generally unwind by having dinner with close friends.”

“I thought to myself, what is everyone's worst fear? Nuclear terrorism in America.”

“I've always been fascinated by the Gold Coast. The homes themselves are spectacular, unlike anything you'll see other than in Newport, Bar Harbor or Palm Beach. It's a very special area that, because of local demographics, is not going to survive much longer.”

“Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.”

“Writing doesn't leave much time for hobbies, unless you consider that I began writing as a hobby and have made the hobby into a profession.”