I'm trying always to leave out what I think is extraneous. And to find what I think is the most wonderful language to make a beautiful sentence.

Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.

Boring people don't know they're boring. That's the problem with boring people.

I think it's true that unless human beings experience something, they simply don't understand what people are going through.

I'm the author of my own misery.

I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a popularity contest. That's not the writer's job.

It's not the writer who determines how good she is anyway. Writers don't determine that. It's readers who determine that.

Do the obvious, you won't forget it. Do the obvious, you won't regret it. Obvious, obvious, obvious.

Nonfiction gives you subjects. Writing fiction I can have more fun, but I have to invent my subject.

Without curiosity a writer is dead.

I don't believe a picture is worth a thousand words, unless they're very confusing words.

I love the forest.

Devote yourself to reading of the Holy Scriptures.

The older I get the more mixed up life seems. When you're little, it's all so plain. It's all laid out like a game ready to play. You think you know exactly how it's going to go. But things happen...

Maturity is about ripeness, thoughtfulness, quality, balance, and wisdom.

He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold.

And God knows I needed to be forgiven. So I had to forgive everybody. And then God - as I read in the word, you're supposed to pray for your enemies. Try that one on

One of the many possible divisions of human beings is into those who make and those who use.

Work requires effort. Things we love to do feel effortless. Only do the things you love and you'll never have to work again.

Look at all our old men in pubs. Look at all our young people on drugs.