No major war or act of mass killing in the twentieth century began without the aggressors or perpetrators first claiming innocence and victimhood.

The vast majority of Jews killed in the Holocaust never saw a concentration camp.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm a middle-of-the-road moderate and the rest of you are crazy.

Don't just get what you need

If you do not write something original you have written nothing at all.

Unlike Christianity which preached a peace that it never achieved Islam unashamedly came with a sword.

There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth the publishing to find honest men to publish it and to get sensible men to read it.

That's how I prepare for anything - I read whatever I can get my hands on, talk to people. I'm a bit of a nerd like that.

Attachment is the source of all suffering.

I thought [first girlfriend] was trying to make a fool out of me. Then I found out that she wasn't, and we went out. That's a very good example of how little confidence I had.

Do you believe in god? I have no need for that hypothesis, he may be around though.

As far as the novel is concerned in my own country, I think it's in a pretty healthy state.