One thing you learn about the novel as a form is that it's always smarter than you are.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

People who know God truly change the life of their nation, and not the government

There is no way to genuinely, powerfully, truly love yourself while crafting a mask of perfection.

I wanted to be an English teacher. I wanted to do it for the corduroy jackets with patches on the side.

I worked as a lawyer as a member of the teaching staff of a technical college and then I worked principally as legal adviser to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party.

I always argued against the auteur theory; films are a collaborative art form. I've had some fantastically good people help me make the movies.

You have to get it in your brain that you don't belong to yourself as an actor, but that you belong to the director who creates the character.

Think about your goals at every opportunity throughout the day.

After 58 years you'd think writing would get easier. It doesn't. If you're lucky, you become harder to please. That's all right, it's still a pleasure.

Behind every adversity - is an opportunity!

God's ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up.