I've spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate very simple and emotional about that music.

Avant-garde music is sort of research music. You're glad someone's done it but you don't necessarily want to listen to it.

Music is love in search of a word.

You don't go to the movies to do historical research unless it's historical research about the movies.

I've just finished my 20th book this past year and I'm working on my 21st book about the Middle East right now that I'll finish this year. And I get up early in the morning and when I get tired of the computer and tired of doing research I walk 20 steps out to my woodshop and I either build furniture or paint paintings. I'm an artist too.

I think the worst and most insidious procrastination for me is research. I will be looking for some bit of fact or figure to include in the novel and before I know I've wasted an entire morning delving into that subject matter without a word written.

Research is four things: brains with which to think eyes with which to see machines with which to measure and fourth money.

There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful.

A lot of people in the media and some everyday people really aren't in search of the truth. They're in search of something worse than that. Money yeah. I think the media's the kind of a thing where the truth doesn't win because it's no fun. The truth's no fun.

We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's life. It may save someone you love. And it's very important.