I wrote a whole novel before The Beach. Unpublishable. Junk. But, for some reason I stuck at novels and wrote a second. Still not sure why I didn't give up. Stubborn, maybe.

Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the evilest motherfucker in the valley

Vietnam, me love you long time. All day, all night, me love you long time.

Tourists went on holidays while travellers did something else. They travelled.

I've never been to Comic-Con, but I'm certainly aware from this side of the Atlantic that it's a very important part of film marketing now, even when the films are not directly linked to a comic.

I do all this alone, everything I achieve, I achieve alone, because it's my head I'm locked into, and I share this space with nobody but myself.

Waking was the most reliable part of a dream, as built into dreams as death is to life. You dream, you wake: you live, you die.

The first I heard of the beach was in Bangkok, on the Ko Sanh Road.

I did keep a travel diary once and it was a big mistake. All I remember of that trip is what I bothered to write down.

I've written original material before, where I've come up with the idea and the characters myself, and that's definitely very different to working with someone else's characters and stories.

I knew my affection for the Philippines was equally as telling: a democracy on paper, apparently well ordered, regularly subverted by irrational chaos. A place where I'd felt instantly at home.

We love to buy books because we believe we're buying the time to read

Often morality defines our inner philosophy.

I want to go back to the tell-me-again times when I slept in her bed and we were everything together. When I was everything to her. Everything she needed.

Clever talk, ingratiating looks, fawning reverence: Tso-ch’iu Ming found that shameful, and so do I. Friendly while harboring resentment: Tso-ch’iu Ming found that shameful, too, and so do I.

This is the hard part about having best friends that I feel no attachment to -- I don't give them any benefit of the doubt. And being best friends is always about the benefit of the doubt.

I do a lot of writing in my capacity as the creative director for a marketing agency. These days, though, I'm trying to write a little bit most evenings just to keep the creative juices flowing.

It doesn't really matter how rich you are, we're all just renting here on earth! It all belongs to the Lord.

Live the moment for the moment.

Purity, patience and perseverance overcome all obstacles. All great things must of necessity be slow.