"The tax issue is the most powerful issue in American politics going back to the Tea Party. People say, 'Oh, Grover Norquist has power.' No. Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform focus on the tax issue. The tax issue is a powerful issue."

"Clinton and Obama practice this politics known quaintly as the Richard Speck strategy: if you cannot take on everyone in the room at once, take them out of the room one at a time."

"Democrats are people who raise your taxes and spend your money on weird stuff. They steal your guns, and they spit on your faith."

"Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."

"Becoming a YA author was actually a very lucky accident. When I wrote the 'Queen of Everything,' I thought it was a book for adults."

"A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen."

"The same way that you are the main character of your story, you are only a secondary character in everybody else's story."

"For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can."