Experience belongs to the actor, but the story belongs to the teller. We write so we will never forget.

The twentieth century saw a professionalization of fiction writing, particularly in its second half and particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world - not so much mainland Europe, for example.

Our interaction with our friends, for instance, is in large part an interaction with representations in our own head of the people before us. That's why a friend can surprise or disappoint us.

No sight better expresses the politics of aid, the dynamics of the West and the developing countries, than the image of children, happy or in need.

Everything new is on the rim of our view, in the darkness, below the horizon, so that nothing new is visible but in the light of what we know.

That’s another argument for writing: making something that outlasts you.

When evil enters the world, do you think it comes with horns and cloven feet, billowing some foul stench?

Then, as now, I believe that the English use language to hide what they mean.

Our choices are made, our will flexed, in the teeth of events that overwhelm us and devour us.

It’s always nice to learn a thing or two from a novel, don’t you think?

It is no consolation to reflect that every cause itself is an effect, making the search for causes and reasons a fool’s errand.

Justice is a relative concept in all ages. The fourteenth century is no exception.

Write the words on your heart.

Dear Time, You're so beautiful when You stand still.

Writing is an incurable psychological disease which only gets worse with writing.

There is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone.

The dog has an enviable mind; it remembers the nice things in life and quickly blots out the nasty.

Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

It is a health care law [ObamaCare] that is basically forcing companies to lay people off, cut people's hours, move people to part-time. It is not just a bad health care law, it is a job-killing law.

I hope that I'm the kind of person who would step in between somebody holding a gun at somebody else. I would like to be that stupid. I'd like to be that in love with life.