Certain emotions bridge the years and link unlikely places.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

Writers write to influence their readers, their preachers, their auditors, but always, at bottom, to be more themselves.

Dubai,I think is a big bore - a city deliberately built to appeal to tourism, and only built for that purpose, and not possessing a valid culture or history of its own.

I definitely miss New Zealand. Mainly friends and family.

You are worth about 3 dollars worth in chemicals.

Avoiding things that drain you is more important than gaining energy.

Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had any experience with them.

I hated hurting him. Most of the time, I could forget about it, but the inexorable truth is this: They might be glad to have me around, but I was the alpha and the omega of my parents' suffering.

If I do something for my kids, I get a medal, because most fathers don't.

Think Give. Not Get. Nothing has the power to positively change your world more.

I think being a good Christian father, your responsibility varies with the age and the stage that your children are at.