You must promise me. You can't desire the end without desiring the means.' Ah, but one can, he thought, one can: one can desire the peace of victory without desiring the ravaged towns.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane.

Hate is a lack of imagination.

Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt

Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible.

Sweet are the thoughts that savor of content: the quiet mind is richer than a crown.

People who like quotes love meaningless generalizations

You never know what you're gonna find when you look under those covers - grandma or the wolf.

For people who like peace and quiet: a phoneless cord.

Every successful person has faced, attacked, and conquered adversity somewhere along the way.

When you resist a difficulty you antagonize it, and it bites back.

I carry a gun cause a cop is too heavy.

I love to swim. I need goggles. If I don't have goggles I run in to the walls of the pool. I have no sense of directions.

[In Eritrea] in key positions - president, government, police - everybody's the same [color]. It's a country run by its people. No racial class, everybody feels a part of it.

I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.

There are few punishments too severe for a popular novel writer.

Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.