Right now, I have no idea what I will write or if I will write again.

She had always wanted words, she loved them; grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape.

That's Anil's path. She grows up in Sri Lanka, goes and gets educated abroad, and through fate or chance gets brought back by the Human Rights Commission to investigate war crimes.

Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy

The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.

We are expanded by tears, we are told, not reduced by them.

We all have an old knot in the heart we wish to untie.

The joyful will stoop with sorrow, and when you have gone to the earth I will let my hair grow long for your sake, I will wander through the wilderness in the skin of a lion

There is the hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border that we cross.

For the first forty days a child is given dreams of previous lives. Journeys, winding paths, a hundred small lessons and then the past is erased.

A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands, knowing it is something that feeds him more than water.

Start with putting three of your friends to jail. You definitely know what for, and people will believe you

As important as it is to possess the willpower to become successful, it's even more important to have the drive to maintain it after you achieve it.

If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.

Torture is such a slippery slope; as soon as you allow a society or any legal system to do that, almost instantly you get a situation where people are being tortured for very trivial reasons.

That worked great! Thank you so much. What next?" "I don't know. I didn't expect you to live through it." "Oh.

Our studies have shown that China's online censorship systems are by far the most sophisticated and extensive in the world.

I try to connect with the everyday, every guy.

You must see your goals clearly and specifically before you can set out for them. Hold them in your mind until they become second nature.

Dangers await only those who do not react to life.

Writing can be described in two verbs: Throw up and clean up.