For me, the main inspiration to write a story or novel is the voice of its central character, or the narrative voice of the story itself.

I can’t think of a more philosophical time in a person’s life than when they are children. It’s the one time when ideas are really beautiful and amazing and all-encompassing. They are life.

Life is a sweet mistake that happened when the world wasn't looking.

In terms of a "career," I never have long-term plans, and certainly don't want to spend several years, say, writing a "long" novel.

We all make terrible mistakes in our lives.

take words and make them useful, ' she told me. 'drain them of all the crappy meanings they used to mean and make them mean something useful instead.

I did come to realize that getting your first job is hard, but it's not nearly as hard as getting your seventh job. That is hard. That's when you really have to prove it to people.

A true disciple shows his appreciation by reaching further than his teacher.

If you confer a benefit, never remember it; if you receive one, never forget it.

They were evidently small men, all wind and quibbles, flinging out their chuffy grain to us with far less interest than a farm-wife feels as she scatters corn to her fowls.

The first thing a writer has to do is find a new source of income.

The grave is still the best shelter against the storms of destiny.

Machines are the opium of the masses. If all the machines in England were thrown into the North Sea tomorrow, we should be back in the Garden of Eden. And the weather would probably improve.

I never thought I had to forge a family, but it felt the most natural thing that ever happened to me - meeting someone and becoming a father.

My new motto is: When you're through changing, you're through.

...we must be wary of granting too much power to natural selection by viewing all basic capacities of our brain as direct adaptations.