All that we don't know is astonishing. Even more astonishing is what passes for knowing.

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.

Sometimes I think I look like a sheep between wolves so I answer where is shepherded? Sometimes I think I am the wolf so I answer where are the sheep-dogs?

The things you didn't receive added value to your life, the same as did the things you received. Life had holes. Life was still beautiful.

A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success.

Does the world have nothing inside but sorrow?

I have a rule: before I can throw anything out, I have to write down five possible uses for it. This stretches my mind and keeps it nimble - just like stretching exercises do for my body.

Put off thy cares with thy clothes; so shall thy rest strengthen thy labour, and so shall thy labour sweeten thy rest.

It's very easy for us to be humble when no one else is around. There is no reason for us to demonstrate our superiority, because no one challenges it.

Anything you think you "must have" usually comes to own you.

Always remain suspicious that God is up to something good.

Husbands and wives are equal partners. They have different but complementary responsibilities.