Quotes from Steven James

And technology is a clock you cannot turn backward.

Apparently, Ellory had been right yesterday when he told me that Chekov was a ghost—Prague, Johannesburg, Rome, Hong Kong—Alexei would materialize out of nowhere, do his work, and then disappear. But at least now, thanks to the video surveillance cameras at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, we had a photo of him.

Even if you know you're sleeping, you're still at the mercy of your dreams. People who are asleep can't simply decide to wake up. Nightmares don't let you off that easily. They hold you in their clutches until they decide, in their own good time, to let you go.

In truth, every one of us leads a double life. We act one way when the door is open, another when it's closed. We have certain impressions we try to make on others, pretenses we strive to keep up.

anything you do in the dark. In other words, it's any act that you try to hide from others. So, what kind of person are you when the shades are drawn? That's really the question. "Integrity," as Dr. Werjonic used to say, "has no private life." But, of course, no one has complete integrity because everyone has things to hide. All of us act differently when no one is watching.

worry of being heard.

Readers couldn't care less how many acts are in your story. In fact, if you write it well, they probably won't even be able to keep track of them. Instead, they care about the forward momentum of the story as it escalates toward its inevitable and unexpected conclusion. Let the shape of the story determine the number of acts, not the other way around.

Only perspective brings truth into focus. Where you stand when you look at the facts will determine how they appear.

let where you've been alone. Do that and the universe will lean in your direction.

Life is for living, for moving on, for letting the past lie behind us.

Prometheus did as he was bidden, and this is the reason why some people have the forms of men but the souls of beasts. The forms of men but the souls of beasts.

want the benefits of intimacy without the risks of transparency. So our lives are always made up of games of hide-and-seek. We want to be found and yet we want to hide from the consequences of being found. Intimacy is the license that you give to someone else to hurt you the most.

There is no Escape

Only through faith in the grace of God, only through mercy at the hand of God, only through hope in the Son of God.

Heaven is where love comes out ahead.

Typically, readers don't get bored because too little is happening but because too little is being promised.

Without hope, the only thing that keeps you going is either momentum or fear.

Justice doesn't always have clean hands, and we all have dark desires clawing at our wills.

All of life is a complex game of strategy; moves, and countermoves, taking and losing pieces, setting up for the final endgame.

Good thought." "Brineesha said she'd

Flowers are the hieroglyphics of angels. Loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.

our minds can do strange things, can convince us of things that aren't real. Sometimes we see things that aren't really there, sometimes we don't see things that are. We're all experts at fictionalizing the truth.

We're desperate to be truly known by others; yet we go to incredible lengths to hide who we really are. We say we want truth, then rationalize it away when it gets too personal.

Propaganda is when a viewpoint is promoted regardless of truth. Art is when truth is rendered regardless of agenda.