Glasgow is still full of churches built in the last century. Half of them have been turned into warehouses.

Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.

You suffer from the oldest delusion in politics. You think you can change the world by talking to a leader. Leaders are the effects, not the causes of changes.

...there were certain chapters when I stopped writing, saw the domestic situation I was in and thought, "I don't want to face this world, let's get back to the hellish one I'm imagining.

I don't think anybody should read anything except for fun because you won't learn anything unless you enjoy it.

Imaginatively Glasgow exists as a music hall song and a few bad novels.

Besides, a life without freedom to choose is not worth having.

I ought to have more love before I die. I've not had enough.

I distrust speech therapy. Words are the language of lies and evasions. Music cannot lie. Music talks to the heart.

But I do enjoy words—some words for their own sake! Words like river, and dawn, and daylight, and time. These words seem much richer than our experiences of the things they represent—

She also said the wicked people needed love as much as good people and were much better at it.

Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of regard

If you ever want to love someone, love yourself unconditionally first.

I couldn’t bring myself to call him either “Bill, ” which would signal friendly familiarity, or “Doctor Vogel, ” which would imply respect.

Make sure that you are fully aware of the work environment which will suit your ‘work style’ the best.

For me, since I have a life wish, not a death wish, for me, I was not gambling my life. I was doing something much more beautiful. I was carrying my life across.

love is reliable. infatuation is temporary.

Don't be a damned ammunition wagon. Be a rifle!

The best advice on writing I've ever received was from William Zinsser: 'Be grateful for every word you can cut.'

No matter what heights you achieve, even if you're Brad Pitt, the slide is coming, sure as death and taxes.

The world that used to nurse us now keeps shouting inane instructions. That's why I ran to the woods.