Try to be accurate about stuff.

People do not change, they are merely revealed.

Only bad writers think that their work is really good.

Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn't matter how "real" your story is, or how "made up": what matters is its necessity.

God, I hate my family, these people I never chose to love, but love all the same.

We do not always like the people we love- we do not always have that choice.

I have no place left to live but in my own heart.

The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.

I’m really lucky with the people around me. They know me, so they don’t confuse the issues really. They know what a book is and they know who I am and they know the difference between the two.

There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line.

Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.

Life is a question asked by God about the way he exists.

To the deepest, most cellular level of my being, I resent people who believe that depression is the same as weakness, that "sad" people must be coddled like helpless toddlers.

If the seed doesn't get planted, it can't become a toxic thornbush. We must guard our minds and our hearts, starting with our eyes.

Every person exceeds our power of measurement.

Well, if you're not a man in glasses standing in front of me with a tape recorder going like this, I can't see anything. But if you are, then I see perfectly well.

Being in love is dangerous because you talk yourself into thinking you've never had it so good.

Actually, the language in Shakespeare is wonderfully musical. You need to hear the music to connect with the words.

I divide my time as follows: half the time I sleep, the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep, for that would be a pity, for sleeping is the highest accomplishment of genius.

I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first.