Err in the direction of kindness.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

The generalizing writer is like the passionate drunk, stumbling into your house mumbling: I know I'm not being clear, exactly, but don't you kind of feel what I'm feeling?

Kindness, it turns out, is hard - it starts out all rainbows and puppy dogs, and expands to include . . . well, EVERYTHING.

I'm afraid that if we move on to such topics, I won't be able to let you go safe and sound.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Don't store unnecessary data, keep an eye on what's happening, and don't take unnecessary risks.

People do not realise that many of my works are done in urban places. I was brought up on the edge of Leeds, five miles from the city centre-on one side were fields and on the other, the city.

Almost everyone thinks they are a good person, but the question you should be asking is, am I good enough to go to Heaven? How would you know?

Wars are made to make debt.

Feminism starts out being very simple, and it ends up being a world view that questions hierarchy altogether.

How marvelous, wide and broad is my Inheritance! Time is my property, my estate is time.

I am part and parcel of the whole and cannot find God apart from the rest of humanity.

While we didn't know the dinosaurs personally, we do know that they were wiped out by an asteroid impact.

Those Catholics, they really nab you when you're young.