English, as a subject, never really got over its upstart nature. It tries to bulk itself up with hopeless jargon and specious complexity, tries to imitate subjects it can never be.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

Genius is an inner inherent intuition and perception. It is not a teachable condition.

Luxury is more deadly than any foe.

You can succeed if nobody else believes it but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself.

There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.

Like any well designed software product, Windows is designed, developed and tested as an integrated whole.

I always preferred working with somebody so I could look into their eyeballs and play tennis.

My sin is the black spot which my bad act makes, seen against the disk of the Sun of Righteousness. Hence religion and sin come and go together.

Bones smiled. “Oh, grand. Going to make me beat the truth out of you? My favorite way to work.

Our minds need relaxation, and give way unless we mix with work a little play.