You learn nothing about men by snubbing them and crushing their pride. You must ask them what it is they can do in this world, that they alone can do.

It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.

Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories.

Florence and Milan had given him ideas more flexible than those of people who'd stayed at home.

When you are writing laws you are testing words to find their utmost power. Like spells, they have to make things happen in the real world, and like spells, they only work if people believe in them.

Fantasy is unconstrained by truth.

His suppressed grief becomes anger. But what can he do with anger? It must also be suppressed.

By the hairy balls of Jesus

For I chase but one hind, he says, one strange deer timid and wild, and she leads me off the paths that other men have trod, and by myself into the depths of the wood.

He has never told anyone this story. He doesn't mind talking to Richard, to Rafe about his past--within reason--but he doesn't mean to give away pieces of himself.

When I was small I dreamed of demons. I thought they were under my bed, but you said, it can't be so, you don't get demons our side of the river, the guards won't let them over London Bridge.

Publication is a marathon, not a sprint. Writing the book is only the start.

It is better for your heart than your head to be your eye.

Believing is a fine thing, but putting those beliefs into execution is a test of strength.

Keep an eye on your responses. Strong responses are about you more than them.

My family would be supportive if I said I wanted to be a Martian, wear only banana skins, make love to ashtrays, and eat tree bark.

I make little distinction between those who commit evil and those who stand by and do nothing.

The energy that gets the baby in is the energy that gets the baby out.

The only people that a bank will loan money to is the very people who don't need it.

I want to regard my public as infinitely intelligent, as understanding notions of the suspension of disbelief and as realising all the time that this is not a slice of life, this is openly a film.

You have to look for teachers. If you want to be a mechanic, go hang out with mechanics.