The only prophecy the artist can make with confidence is that he and his message will be misunderstood by a world that values all the wrong things.

Between the lines of every book the writer reveals their own secrets.

When you lose yourself in a book the hours grow wings and fly.

Writers strive for the impossible: perfection. Even the universe is flawed.

Characters begin as your children and become your teachers.

Books have a life. They breathe. When you write a book, it grows and changes. You learn from your characters after you create them. They come from you and you become them.

Write what you want to write. That's the only advice a writer will ever need.

Writing is like a religion to those who don't practise, an act of faith for those who do.

Who knows why we do it? And when we've done it, nobody wants it. Still we keep doing it. That's what makes a writer a writer.

Perfection is not something you strive for. Perfection is in the eyes of the beholder. Perfection is a state of grace, of peace of serenity, a moment as fleeting as a smile.

I'm my characters' galley slave.

Because there was a hunger in me to see everything and do everything. I wanted to be everyone I saw. I wasn't enough for me. Can you understand that?

If you treat every question like you've never heard it before, your students feel like you respect them and everyone learns a lot more. Including the teacher.

Removing the faults in a stage-coach may produce a perfect stage-coach, but it is unlikely to produce the first motor car.

MONARCH, n. A person engaged in reigning. Formerly the monarch ruled, as the derivation of the word attests, and as many subjects have had occasion to learn.

Life can be tough sometimes. But I think it just starts with admitting, 'Okay, the world's not perfect, how do we live our lives within that and not be miserable?'

Some of the most important lessons I've learned have been from stumbling, and I am deeply grateful that my parents allowed me to fight my own battles.

That's the purpose of old age... To give us a breathing space before we die, in which to see why we did what we did.

Far from wishing to awaken the artist in the pupil prematurely, the teacher considers it his first task to make him a skilled artisan with sovereign control of his craft.

When I was young, I remember having a particular pain about injustice. Suffering hurt me.

The ancient God created the old man, capable of erring - thus he erred himself.