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.

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

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.

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

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.

Success must be personalised, contextualized and internalized. Success means something different to each one of us. We each have a unique and peculiar mission in life.

Furthermore, he had beautiful eyes.

He just likes to have fun, Papa.""That's not a quality that gets you far in life.

Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He's the chap who makes it possible for civilized folk to despise war.

It's a powerful thing to know that you are empowering someone to lift themselves out of poverty.

That’s the secret of artistic unity. Anybody can achieve it, if he or she will make something with only one person in mind.

I look at every book as a self-help book.

To be popular I must be mediocre.

A devotee's life should be so exemplary that it increases the faith upon other devotees.

Mendeleev, unlike the squeamish Meyer, had balls enough to predict that new elements would be dug up. Look harder, you chemists and geologists, he seemed to taunt, and you’ll find them.