Affliction is more apt to suffocate the imagination than to stimulate it.

You have come to the shore. There are no instructions.

Both art and faith are dependent on imagination; both are ventures into the unknown.

I'm not very good at praying, but what I experience when I'm writing a poem is close to prayer.

Nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness, the deep intelligence living at peace would have.

It's when we face for a moment the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know the taint in our own selves, that awe cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart.

Grief is a hole you walk around in the daytime and at night you fall into it.

In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.

Marvelous Truth, confront us at every turn, in every guise.

One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language.

But for us the road unfurls itself, we don't stop walking, we know there is far to go.

The most satisfactory definition of man from the scientific point of view is probably Man the Tool-maker.

Self-Worth. Self-Love. Self-Esteem. Self-Motivation. Self-Confidence. All of these things equal Self-Empowerment. Always believe in yourself, even if nobody else does!

Family law is institutionally anti-male. I've been lobbying MPs, and I'm not going to give up campaigning for equality until I get equality.

In the piano, one has the instrument complete before he begins; but in the case of the voice, the instrument has to be developed by study.

A novel determines its own size and shape and I've never tried to stretch an idea beyond the frame and structure it seemed to require.

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.

I actually live a very mediocre lifestyle. So I decided to step back and do things not just for the sake of doing them, but because I believe in them and I want to do them.

To live like a poor man is only fun when you are rich.

Europeans have quarrelled since the beginning of time.

I think the way kids create is so inspiring. They're drawing a picture? They love the picture they drew; they're not tortured about it.