Imagine a world in which no writer has written a literary novel in sixty years. Imagine a place where not a single person has read a book that is truly about the character at its center.

Orphans are the only ones who get to choose their fathers, and they love them twice as much.

The next day, she was silent. For breakfast, she murdered an onion and served it raw.

. . . nobody every taught you loyalty . . .

I am a champion standing over the shadow of my former self.

Today, tomorrow," she said. "A day is nothing. A day is just a match you strike after the ten thousand matches before it have gone out.

The urge to create a fictional narrative is a mysterious one, and when an idea comes, the writer's sense of what a story wants to be is only vaguely visible through the penumbra of inspiration.

Use your imagination only on the future, never on the present or the past.

A good story feels both surprising and inevitable, fresh and familiar.

[I]n communism, you'd threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.

But people do things to survive, and then after they survive, they can't live with what they've done.

The past embraces the futureThe future embraces the pastThey are both intertwinedLinked in all eternity

Talking about my fears to others feeds it.

Faith in oneself ... is the best and safest course.

Investing in management means building communication systems, business processes, feedback, and routines that let you scale the business and team as efficiently as possible.

Love is the way back into Eden. It is the way back to life.

Our armies were in as much chaos in victory as theirs in defeat.

If God didn't want you to have it, He would never have let you see it.

Priests are not men of the world; it is not intended that they should be; and a University training is the one best adapted to prevent their becoming so.

Diplomacy is much like the "lovemaking of elephants", which is accompanied with a lot of bellowing and other sound effects, but no one can be sure of the consequences for at least the next two years

People have recognized me sometimes but not much. I'm glad my life isn't too different. I don't want it to be.