Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

To know you will be lonely is not the same as being lonely.

People do not love those whose eyes show that they are somewhere else

The declared meaning of a spoken sentence is only its overcoat, and the real meaning lies underneath its scarves and buttons.

I have never begun a novel which wasn't going to stretch me further than I had ever stretched before.

I'm interested in where we are, where we're going, where we've come from.

Swimming always cleans your soul

It's like standing on the edge of a cliff. This is especially true of the first draft. Every day you're making up the earth you're going to stand on.

Nostalgia is something we think of as fuzzy. But it's pain. Pain concerning the past.

My greatest pleasure is to invent. My continual mad ambition is to make something true and beautiful that never existed in the world before.

I'm always the one with the activist friends. I've been an activist very little.

Strong people don't put others down. They lift them up and slam them on the ground for maximum damage.

What happens in the dark should not be brought to light.

I don't think about my previous success. I'm happy that the work I've done has been very successful.

I'm just the mere shadow of my former selfishness. I crave the silhouette of your kiss.

No one has the right to judge you, because no one really knows what you have been through. They might have heard the stories, but they didn't feel what you felt in your heart.

And what lesson can we draw from Volantene history? If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.

Liberty must not be abused.

There is no 'as far as possible' on the question of untouchability. If it is to go, it must go in its entirety from the temples as from everywhere else.

We learn to fly not by being fearless, but by the daily practice of courage.

There is an expectation that we can talk about sins but no one must be identified as a sinner.