I think it's bad to talk about one's present work for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

I was thinking that surgeons had to be the happiest people on earth. To cut people up and get paid for it-that's happiness, I told myself.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

First words on the first telephone - "Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you."

The loss of a beloved connection awakens an interest in Heaven before unfelt.

He who owns the soil, owns up to the sky.

Holly Black is the Real Thing: a gifted writer with a solid grounding in what matters. Her stories are dark and splendid blooms rising from roots sunk deep in myth and tradition.

Decency requires that when a programme is approved by the majority, all should carry it out faithfully.

A genuinely humble person humbles himself even before those who should be humbled by his presence.

Don't let go too soon, but don't hold on too long.

We use Ann sparingly right now so that people don't get tired of her.

The most wretched fortune is safe; for there is no fear of anything worse. [Lat., Fortuna miserrima tuta est: Nam timor eventus deterioris abest.]