I don't know if I believe in God, but I know I believe in the devil. I have met him.

If books were Persian carpets, one would not look only at the outer side. because it is the stitch that makes a carpet wear, gives it its life and bloom.

When you learn to read you will be born again...and you will never be quite so alone again.

To me and my kind life itself is a story and we have to tell it in stories - that is the way it falls.

Drink very good tea out of a thin Wocester cup of colour between apricot and pink.

Wanting is the beginning of getting.

It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.

You can be a nuisance to your family. You mustn't be a nuisance to your friends.

A garden isn't meant to be useful. It's for joy.

Memory is the only friend of grief.

Most grown people are like icebergs, three-tenths showing, seven-tenths submerged - that is why a collision with one of them is unexpectedly hurtful.

Believing is not thinking something is true, Shireen. It is acting for the truth.

The essence of health is inner balance.

Irony is the bringing together of two contradictory truths and to make out of the contradiction a new truth, with a laugh or a smile.

The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully vague.

And when someone makes a statement you don't understand, don't tell him he's crazy. Ask him what he means.

I can write a story in working-class Stockholm Swedish, but I'm not going to assume I can perform the same feat with Cockney. I'll focus on adventures in story, themes and structure instead.

Anything that keeps you happy and writing is part of my writing ritual: I like music, so I tend to have it playing in the background. But if I'm interested, I can write in an airport waiting areas.

Digital makes it so much easier. No bricks of film, no worrying about airport X-rays, etc.

all my wealth is in my memories.

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth.