I have seen journals with good financial backing and editorial support die because they looked so bad nobody wanted to publish them.

My parents were in the book business, my brothers still run the Dutton bookstores in Los Angeles, and I've been interested in editing books and journals all of my life.

I try to figure out - intellectually, philosophically, psychologically - what the experience of beauty is.

Dumbing down takes many forms: art that is good for you, museums that flatter you, universities that increase your self-esteem. Culture, after all, is really about you.

Being on the 'Alex Cross' set, and watching and learning about and paying attention to everything that was going on there, I realized, 'Here is a moment for me to learn.'

In Congress, I'll work hard to encourage investment in education, particularly with respect to technology and bridging the digital divide.

All my books are made up of other books. They're all deeply structured on other fiction, because I was a student in fiction and I didn't have much actual living to draw on. I suspect a lot of other people's novels are like that, too, though they might be slower to talk about it.

I grew up a middle class, colonized child of teachers and librarians and people, women especially, who treasured education.