Quotes from Dean Koontz

We are coming now to dark shoals in rough waters, to straits so narrow that virtue and wickedness voyage close together and may be at times more difficult than usual to differentiate from each other.

The things we regret most in life are the things we don't do.

Be of the world and in the world and above the world all at once. Be you and only you

A truly nice smile combined with self-control can take a person a long way.

Most people unconsciously blind themselves to the true nature of existence, because they fear knowing that this world is a place of mystery and meaning. It's immeasurably easier to live in a world that's all surfaces, that means nothing and demands nothing of you.

THE OFFICE FELT SUMPTUOUS EVEN IN NEAR DARKNESS. It reminded me of certain photographs by Edward Steichen: velvet shadows deepening into moody gloom, here and there a form suggested by a reflection of light on a radius of polished wood, the mysterious gleam of Tiffany glass in the pendant shade of a lamp not lit, the room implied rather than revealed, yet known as well as if it had been enraptured by sunshine instead of barely kissed by the ghost light of the haunted city beyond the windows.

It's not about the money, it's the kindness, the way it makes the recipient feel special. Life is hard and lonely for many people. If all of us would just make one another feel special now and then—not just with money, but however we can—wouldn't that be lovely?

That's what life's all about: little by little, day by day, with excruciating stubbornness, each of us learning how to be less screwed up.

No one can genuinely love the world, which is too large to love entire. To love all the world at once is pretense or dangerous self-delusion. Loving the world is like loving the idea of love, which is perilous because, feeling virtuous about this grand affection, you are freed from the struggles and the duties that come with loving people as individuals, with loving one place—home—above all others.

His love life was about as romantic as an arm-wrestling contest. He was self-aware enough to know that he—not the women—was the problem, but he didn't know how to fix himself.

Although Grandpa never put it in words for me, one thing I learned from him was that being admired gives you more power than being feared.

Friendship does not depend on conversation. Sometimes the most important communication is not mouth to ear, but heart to heart.

No standards anymore. Now Ricky he watches all them old Disney and Warner Brothers toons on DVD. You never have to worry if maybe Bugs Bunny is goin' to get it on with Daffy Duck.

I'm not unique, Chyna. The world is filled with the likes of me – most are just less free. You know where I think a lot of my type wind up?' In spite of herself, she asked, 'Where?' 'In politics.

The world turns and the world changes, but one thing does not change . . . The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.

Words are plastic these days. Small loans made to desperate people at exorbitant interest rates are called payday advances. A cheesy hotel paired with a seedy casino is called a resort. Any assemblage of frenetic images, bad music, and incoherent plot is called a major motion picture.

But as usual, the common folk are wiser and more able to discern the truth of things than are the elites who claim to serve them.

darkening sea full of stirred silt and clouds of minute

Is this the sunniest of sunny days or isn't it?" "What?" "You've got eyes, child. Look around, look around!" "Sure, it's sunny." "Then you be sunny, too, and things will turn out better than if you aren't.

The doll twitched. Its head turned slightly toward Tommy. Its green eye fixed on him.

Perseverance is impossible if we don't permit ourselves to hope.

When steel sagged, when clothes grew moth-eaten on haberdashery racks, when cars rusted on showroom floors for want of customers, the film industry nevertheless flourished. In bad times as in good, the only two absolute necessities were food and illusions.

He knows the legend of the Wandering Jew who struck Christ on the day of the crucifixion and was then condemned to roam the world forever without rest. Some say this condemnation was in fact an act of grace because the devil can't find and take a man whose remorse drives him to wander ceaselessly in search of absolution.

Death is part of life. If you think about it, you were born into a world populated by the dead, because