Sidney Sheldon
Try to leave the Earth a better place than when you arrived.Collection: Environmental
Women's value has been under-recognized for far too long.Collection: Women
I always spend time exploring the customs and attitudes of the countries I'm using for locations, and interviewing the people who live there. I've visited over 90 countries thus far.Collection: Attitude
The Dalai Lama. He is a very wise man of great inner peace who believes that happiness is the purpose of our lives. Through his teachings and leadership, he continues to make this world a better place in which to live.Collection: Leadership
My heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect our world and make it a better place - police, firefighters and members of our armed forces.
I admire people who are, by nature, kind and fair to others.
I think that's because believable action is based on authenticity, and accuracy is very important to me. I always spend time researching my novels, exploring the customs and attitudes of the county I'm using for their setting.
There's this sense of excitement because you invent and control the characters. You decide whether they live or die. I find this type of creative process tremendously stimulating.
Don't give up. There are too many nay-sayers out there who will try to discourage you. Don't listen to them. The only one who can make you give up is yourself.
I think people throughout the world identify with my characters.
Usually, when people get to the end of a chapter, they close the book and go to sleep. I deliberately write a book so when the reader gets to the end of the chapter, he or she must turn one more page.
I will not write about anyplace in the world unless I've been there to personally research it.
Talent is a gift that can be given, and it can be taken away. We have to appreciate that.
When people tell me I've kept them up all night, I feel like I've succeeded.
What I do is put my characters into situations that are so precarious there is no way to get out. And then I figure how to get them out.
Abraham Lincoln because he was a man filled with great compassion who believed that all men are created free and equal, and was not afraid to stand on that platform. The way Lincoln lived his life has served me well in mine.
Another woman approached me while I was having lunch at the Russian Tea Room in New York and told me that the reason she had become a lawyer was because she had read 'Rage of Angels'. To me, that kind of feedback has more meaning than any sales figures.
I go to great lengths to make certain situations feel right to the reader.
I love the freedom that the narrative form provides.
I try to give both my heroes and villains an emotional dimensionality which provides the motivation for their actions.
I wanted to make sure that the man who found the genie would not take terrible advantage of her, so he needed to be a person of integrity and honor - which is why I made the male lead an astronaut. The rest, as they say, is history.
I worked in Hollywood as a reader and a would-be writer for about 6 years before I sold my first story.
If there is any secret to my success, I think it's that my characters are very real to me. I feel everything they feel, and therefore I think my readers care about them.
In a novel, on the other hand, you not only have to describe the rooms, but the clothes, the characters and what they are thinking. It's a much more in-depth process.
Stories had always been told about male genies coming out of bottles, but they were usually fat, old men. Never had the genie been a gorgeous woman, so that idea really appealed to me, and I created the series based on that premise.
The fact that my female characters have strong personalities but are also physically attractive probably reflects the women I've known in my life.
The part of my writing I find the most rewarding is when people write to me or speak to me in public to tell me how his or her life has been changed by my books.
The thing that made Groucho special was the way he used his body parts. He also had a wicked tongue. People didn't realize it, but when Groucho said something, he meant it.
When you write a movie, you have a hundred collaborators. But when you write a novel, it's yours.
Writing novels is the most exciting.
There is magic, but you have to be the magician. You have to make the magic happen.Collection: Magic
Life is like a novel. It's filled with suspense. You have no idea what is going to happen until you turn the page.Collection: Life And Love
You have two choices. you can keep running and hiding and blaming the world for your problems, or you can stand up for yourself and decide to be somebody important.Collection: Running
To be successfull you need friends and to be very successfull you need enemies.Collection: Enemy
To find riches is a beggar’s dream, but to find love is the dream of kings.Collection: Dream
The only one who can make you give up is yourself.Collection: Being Yourself
Being poor is only romantic in books.Collection: Book
If. A two-letter word for futility.Collection: Life
I'm a woman. I have a right to change my mind.Collection: Mind
...but ready or not,life goes on.Collection: Goes On
It moves at its own measured pace, for it has no reason to hurry. Tomorrow will come in its own good time.Collection: Moving
you are my sun, and if the sun went out, the shadow would die.Collection: Shadow
I'm sure that whatever changed is only temporary. It will change again.Collection: Changed
Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.Collection: Life Changing
A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.Collection: Writing
Not now.It's too late.It was always too late.Collection: Too Late
Jamie enjoyed solitude, but loneliness was a constant ache.Collection: Loneliness
God cannot take sides; for He is in all of us. We are all a part of Him, and when we try to destroy Him, we destroy ourselves.Collection: Trying
You know, it's not fair. Women are judged inferior until we prove ourselves, and men are judged superior until they prove what assholes they are.Collection: Men
Death is the number two fear that people have and public speaking is the first!Collection: Two