I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away.

A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.

Finish the day's writing when you still want to continue.

The human longing for story is so powerful, so primitive, that it seems like something not learned, but locked into our genes.

i wish i was away in Ingo far across the briny sea sailing over deepest waters where neither care nore worry trouble me

It is a violation which has obsessed the tyrants of the twentieth century. They do not want simply to kill their opponents, but to liquidate them, to deny that they have ever existed.

However, the difficulties and pleasures of the writing itself are similar for a novel with a historical setting and a novel with a contemporary setting, as far as I'm concerned.

However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was a great moment to see my first poems published. It felt like entering a tradition.

Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader. You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear.

As individuals, we are shaped by story from the time of birth; we are formed by what we are told by our parents, our teachers, our intimates.

When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one.

Fullness of joy is discovered only in the emptying of will.

Nothing shakes the smiling heart.

Most success oriented mindsets miss out on people becoming more valuable.

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'

Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

Always avoid picking up hitch-hikers who are wearing a mask.

When youre dealing with digital goods, you dont have to be tied to one URL.

You can never entirely stop being what you once were. That's why it's important to be the right person today, and not put it off till tomorrow.

Don't make art for other artists or for 'intellectuals', make art for people - and if you can touch just one person in a lifetime and make a difference - you have succeeded.