Realism is to fiction what gravity is to walking: a confinement that allows dancing under the right circumstances.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

Take one minute every day and think hard about your life. You will always change for the best.

We're going balls to the walls, guys. Our sneak and peak just turned inti a hostage rescue.

You know everyone loves a palace.

Equip yourself for your own needs.

Nothing is the force that renovates the World.

This thaw took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw.

One shouldn't go to the woods looking for something, but rather to see what is there.

He has the personality of a child prodigy, but no discernable talent.

Life is full of a thousand red herrings, and it takes the history of a civilisation to work out which are the red herrings and which aren't.