Failure makes success so much sweeter, and allows you to thumb your nose at the crowds.

It's a strange paradox that a man gifted with too many talents can fritter them all away without developing a single one to its full.

I write my books in my head, and not in a specific study with a view. The view is from my inner eyes.

It's probably true that everyone has a book in them, although it may not be a very good one.

They do say that socialism is the ideal philosophy-just as long as you have capitalists to pay for it.

I think one of the most poignant things is unrequited love and loneliness.

When I vacate this sack of old bones I won't care what you do with it. Bury or burn it but don't make much fuss.

Litigation only makes lawyers fat.

Sometimes it is best for men not to attempt to interfere with destiny. Our prayers can be answered in ways which we do not expect and do not welcome.

I don't want children. Why should I let some strange little monster into my life to destroy what to me is a perfect set-up?

All my characters have got a big slice of me in them. A big piece of me, because it's my dialogue and this is the way I think and talk.

One can no more approach people without love than one can approach bees without care. Such is the quality of bees...

The truly Christian imagination never lets Jesus Christ out of her sight.

Maybe I thought too much about picking up the money and not enough about the really good parts.

I am aware that one should always make room for renewal in politics. A democracy is the healthier for the turnover of the depth of talent there is in its community.

Kind of the bottom line for me, I don't think people come to the church where I preach to hear my view on politics.

The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.

A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.

Great acting may be a turn-on, but it won't make me fantasize about the person for a week.

I'll cry anywhere because I can do it quite subtly. Walking, that's a good time to have a cry.

It's probably why I'm a short story writer. I tend to remember things in the past in narrative form, in story form, and I grew up around people who told stories all the time.