I like books that don't give you an easy ride. I like the feeling of discomfort. The sense of being implicated.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

People regret not achieving enough success in life, they should regret missing many opportunities in life.

The success of a civil order should not be judged by its most affluent members, but by the standard of living of its poor.

You do remember how dangerous I am with those?” “Aye, that’s the point. Everyone will duck and cover if they see you wielding these.” “Even my teammates?”“Especially your teammates.

Fortune frowns as often as he smiles, and you don’t want to be in his line of sight when he does.

Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee neither search the things that are above thy strength.

I know the price of lettuce. You need to understand price and value. You buy the best lettuce you can at the best price you can.

Harm no other beings. They are just your brothers and sisters.

We know the Lord makes His servants bold. The young boy Joseph who saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, in a grove of trees was transformed into a spiritual giant.

The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient-at others so bewildered and weak-and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control!

The zeal, bravery, and good behavior of the officers and men on the night of June 30, and during July 1, was commendable in the extreme.