Each book starts from ashes.

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.

You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.

When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place.

Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.

Our lack of forgiveness makes us hate, and our lack of compassion makes us hard-hearted. Pride in our hearts makes us resentful and keeps our memory in a constant whirlwind of passion and self-pity.

Everyone in your life is a figment of your imagination--ev en you.

Happiness in the present is only shattered by comparison with the past.

I'm not going to give the same energy. I am going to give more of myself. If everyone thinks like that, it's going to be something incredible.

I work pretty much every day. I can't really separate it from life, so I guess the work is my life.

Christianity spreads through the joy of disciples who know that they are loved and saved.

Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.

Nothing is really small; whoever is open to the deep penetration of nature knows this.