That’s another argument for writing: making something that outlasts you.

Experience belongs to the actor, but the story belongs to the teller. We write so we will never forget.

The twentieth century saw a professionalization of fiction writing, particularly in its second half and particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world - not so much mainland Europe, for example.

Our interaction with our friends, for instance, is in large part an interaction with representations in our own head of the people before us. That's why a friend can surprise or disappoint us.

No sight better expresses the politics of aid, the dynamics of the West and the developing countries, than the image of children, happy or in need.

Everything new is on the rim of our view, in the darkness, below the horizon, so that nothing new is visible but in the light of what we know.

When evil enters the world, do you think it comes with horns and cloven feet, billowing some foul stench?

Then, as now, I believe that the English use language to hide what they mean.

Our choices are made, our will flexed, in the teeth of events that overwhelm us and devour us.

It’s always nice to learn a thing or two from a novel, don’t you think?

It is no consolation to reflect that every cause itself is an effect, making the search for causes and reasons a fool’s errand.

Touch has a memory.

Sometimes...the hardest part about letting someone go is realizing that you were never meant to have them.

I suffer from two phobias: 1) Phobia-Phobia, the fear that you're unable to get scared, and 2) Xylophataquieopiaphobia, the fear of not pronouncing words correctly.

Why do you always insist on playing while I'm trying to conduct?

I don't look at a lot of design. I try to stay focused on making sculptural art pieces and somehow translating them into design.

The melancholy joys of evils pass'd, For he who much has suffer'd, much will know.

There is no inconsistency in saying that God rewards good works, provided we understand that nevertheless men obtain eternal life gratuitously.

I never feel lonely in the kitchen. Food is very friendly.

Winning can be addictive

You have a moral obligation to finish the job you said you would do.