For life is but a dream whose shapes return, some frequently, some seldom, some by night and some by day.

Statues and pictures and verse may be grand, But they are not the Life for which they stand.

The world rolls round forever like a mill; it grinds out death and life and good and ill; it has no purpose, heart or mind or will.

More firm and sure the hand of courage strikes, when it obeys the watchful eye of caution.

Settings are obviously important - and as a writer, you have to respect what was real at the time of the story you're writing. But the real key to success lies in finding the right characters to carry that story.

I always find that really interesting, you know, when I get to see characters that I love in TV and film and theater around their family.

The loss of liberty which must attend being a wife was of all things the most horrible to my imagination.

In The Touch, the love scenes are the same as they were in The Thorn Birds or anything else I've ever written. I find a way of saying that either it was heaven or hell but in a way that still leaves room for the reader to use their own imagination.