It's really a lovely feeling to write knowing that failure is taken off the table because if it's bad you just never show it to anyone.

The minute you become a leader of a country, you go into a very small club. You join that sort of pantheon of other world leaders.

If you have distance from the events, then your story can work as an analogy or parable, rather than its literal narrative.

To what degree are historians chroniclers of the truth and to what degree are they just novelists, frankly?

Firms are a bit concerned about things like oil prices and US growth but actually the change (in firms expectations) is quite small so I think broadly theyre looking for more of the same.

I wrote 'Hereafter' quickly and without mapping it out too much or being too schematic. As an exercise, I think that was incredibly important.

Generally, I read nonfiction. Theres very little fiction that I enjoy enough to spend my time reading. I am generally a nonfiction guy.

Movies feel like work, and reading fiction feels like work, whereas reading nonfiction feels like pleasure.

I just try and do something good. But as a writer, you're slightly out of control.

I am not a politics wonk. I like the idea of my writing reflecting more about who I am or other people.

The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers.

The desire to swim in deeper waters is what gives a greater experience. Nothing new comes out of being ordinary. Leaders take risks.

The blue of the sky is one of the most special colors in the world, because the color is deep but see-through both at the same time.

You hear me, don't ever let anyone kill the spark inside you. No matter what.

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

The sensation of falling was the worst part.

Each of us will eventually give away all our earthly possessions. How we choose to do so, however, is a reflection of our commitment to the kingdom of God.

Lovers, when they are no longer in love, find it very hard to break up.

I feel like there are too many words in the world, and I think silence is so much more powerful than the glut of words.

Money is the sovereign queen of all delights - for her, the lawyer pleads, the soldier fights.

Error is sometimes so nearly allied to truth that it blends with it as imperceptibly as the colors of the rainbow fade into each other.