Science is still only a candle glimmering in a great pitch-dark cavern.

Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.

Prosperity or egalitarianism -- you have to choose. I favor freedom -- you never achieve real equality anyway: you simply sacrifice prosperity for an illusion.

Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life.

Life is a shitstorm, in which art is our only umbrella." (spoken by character in a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa)

The secret to a masterpiece is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

Its easy to know what you want to say, but not to say it

Writers are the exorcists of their own demons.

One can't fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.

No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.

Writing is easy. Writing is hard. It's a breeze and a struggle, just like life.

Liberty is always dangerous - but it is the safest thing we have.

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.

I live to inspire girls, volunteers, Girl Scout staff and alumni

Don't commit suicide, because you might change your mind two weeks later.

It is better to play than do nothing.

Humility is a virtue when you have no other.

My mum actually gave up work to look after my child, which is so touching.

I've had so much fun working on 'Shameless.'

History is neither written nor made without love or hate.