It's amazing how much punishment we can take.

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.

You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.

When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place.

Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.

He must have known I'd want to leave you.""No, he must have known you would always want to come back.

No two persons can learn something and experience it in the same way.

It's not a question of how much power you can hoard for yourself, but how much you can give away.

Clarity (always) trumps persuasion

Is not this lily pure? What fuller can procure A white so perfect, spotless clear As in this flower doth appear?

It makes me nervous when you keep answering all my questions with 'I don't know.' " "Me, too," I said.

It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world

The older you get, the fewer things it seems too late to do.

Once is sometimes enough and once is sometimes necessary.

Study your subject through half-closed eyes before starting to draw - you'll find that the lights and darks are exaggerated and easier to identify.