Dan Brown

Well, you know, in any novel you would hope that the hero has someone to push back against, and villains — I find the most interesting villains those who do the right things for the wrong reasons, or the wrong things for the right reasons. Either one is interesting. I love the gray area between right and wrong.

Technology is changing the way we interact as humans.

I'm trying to write books that taste like ice cream but have the nutrition of vegetables.

Our religions are much more similar than they are different.

I've learned that universal acceptance and appreciation is just an unrealistic goal.

I'm fascinated by power, especially veiled power. Shadow power. The National Security Agency. The National Reconnaissance Office. Opus Dei. The idea that everything happens for reasons we're not quite seeing.

I love the gray area between right and wrong.

I am a completely horizontal author. I can't think unless I'm lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy. I've got to be puffing and sipping.

For me, a good thriller must teach me something about the real world. Thrillers like 'Coma', 'The Hunt for Red October' and 'The Firm' all captivated me by providing glimpses into realms about which I knew very little — medical science, submarine technology and the law.

Faith is a continuum, and we each fall on that line where we may. By attempting to rigidly classify ethereal concepts like faith, we end up debating semantics to the point where we entirely miss the obvious — that is, that we are all trying to decipher life's big mysteries, and we're each following our own paths of enlightenment.

The thing that's going to make artificial intelligence so powerful is its ability to learn, and the way AI learns is to look at human culture.

There's a lot of stress... but once you get in the car, all that goes out the window.