When he [Joe Lewis] was asked upon his retirement about his long career, Joe sweetly summed it up in just ten words. 'I did the best I could with what I had'.

The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you - it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

He had learned the worst lesson that life can teach - that it makes no sense.

You can no more make someone tell the truth than you can force someone to love you.

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

The horror of being caged has lost its thrill.

Everybody else is working to change, persuade, tempt and control them. The best readers come to fiction to be free of all that noise.

I have a slogan I use when I get anxious writing, which happens quite a bit: ‘the ordeal is part of the commitment.’ It’s one of my mantras. It makes a lot of things doable.

When the whole world doesn't believe in God, it'll be a great place.

Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.

Only after disaster can we be resurrected.

You really don't have to burn any bridges to let go... You don't have to destroy anything. You can just decide to cross over and move on.

I have goals and aspirations, and I believe that you can go after your dreams, and it can work if you have someone there that's supporting you.

I don't mind if my future is long or short, as long as I'm doing the right thing. And as long as I behave for other people.

It takes practice to shave the skin off the light.

Please think of me like an endangered species and just observe me quietly from far away. If you try to talk to me or touch me casually, I may get intimidated and bite you. So please be careful.

The difference between success and failure is work.

Scum of the Earth as some may be in their daily lives, they can all be saints in emergencies.

There are some men who in a fifty-fifty proposition insist on getting the hyphen too.