I don't think you can reach your potential as a writer unless you're a passionate reader, AND read passionately.

Groom yourself and your life like a shrub. Trim off the edges and you'll be stronger in the broken places. Embrace the new growth and blossom at the tips.

I was emotionally scarred we could not get it away

What you don’t know fills the infinite universe. What you do know only fills your mind.

Keep practicing, " he told her."Until I get it right?" she said. But he corrected her."No. Until you don't get it wrong.

If a good man can't sleep after hurting people, then he should learn much more to be a leader.

Woe to the Revolution when the day comes, when the people, overburdened by contributions and consumed by abuses, turn to their enemies for salvation!

Professors of classics - not even a professor of English - professors of classics, they're something sacred; it's almost like being a priest.

He felt the hot impact of bullets. He heard the sound of chopping meat. He thought 'is that me?' . . . and then he opened his eyes.

The writer's life [is] full of frailty and defeat like any other life. What counts is the work. Yet the work can quite easily be buried, or half-buried, by the life.