There is humor in the specter of the worst disaster in our nation's history. All I have to do is sweep away the debris of shock to find it.

My humor tends to be a little more edgy than is appropriate for 'Twilight ' although I got some in there. That was fun! There's just a tonal difference. For me storytelling is storytelling. But I do like writing for grown ups.

Throughout history great leaders have known the power of humor.

Wherever my story takes me however dark and difficult the theme there is always some hope and redemption not because readers like happy endings but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.

I don't want to tell your story because you're a insensitive self-centered moron. I've told a lot of stories about young people and I always feel there's hope.

No matter how dark things may get in a story I feel it's the responsibility of the storyteller to leave the audience with at least a shred of hope.

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

I hope I didn't bore you too much with my life story.

I read the Odyssey because it was the story of a man who returned home after being absent for more than twenty years and was recognized only by his dog.

Recently I heard a 'wise guy' story that I had a party at my home for twenty-five men. It's an interesting story but I don't know twenty-five men I'd want to invite ta a party.

In all honesty at that time I never saw myself as an author... I was just a Mom in a state of panic trying to enter a short story contest to win the prize money in order to keep the lights on in my home.

My mother is a special story. She went through so much to bring us up four men at home especially when our country was going through really difficult times.

Events at home at work in the street - these are the bases for a story.

The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.

At Home in the World is the story of a young woman raised in some difficult circumstances and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption not victimhood.

If I had been elected president in 1948 history would be vastly different. I believe we would have stemmed the growth of Big Government which had begun with the New Deal and culminated with the Great Society.

For most of our history Americans enjoyed both liberty and security from foreign threats.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history. It is simply a succession of mistakes intolerances and violations.

This is a good time to ask apologists for the Islamic regime who degrades Islam? Who imposes stoning forced marriage of underage girls and flogging for not wearing the veil? Do such practices represent Iran's ancient history and culture its ethnic and religious diversity? Its centuries of sensual and subversive poetry?

What would be the nicest thing I could say about Newt Gingrich? He may be one of the great supporters of the humanities because you have people who don't want to study the social sciences because it's not profitable and now Newt as the highest-paid historian in American history may be an encouragement to people to study history.

History offers no evidence for the proposition that the assignment of women to military combat jobs is the way to win wars improve combat readiness or promote national security.

In the history of America we've never had an energy plan. We don't even realize the resources we have available to us.

For all history up to the end of the Cold War summit meetings were historic and dramatic occasions when leaders who controlled the destiny of much of the world met to change the world.

The issue of civil rights was too much for the establishment to handle. One of the chapters of history that's least studied by historians is the 300 to 500 riots in the U.S. between 1965 and 1970.