Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

I dislike pastiche; it attracts attention to the language only.

It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.

Feminism hasn't failed, it's just never been tried.

Truth can break the gates down, truth can howl in the street; unless truth is pleasing, personable and easy to like, she is condemned to stay whimpering at the back door.

If you have a good story idea, don't assume it must form a prose narrative. It may work better as a play, a screenplay or a poem. Be flexible.

The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.

I didn't cry much after I was 35, but staggered stony-faced into middle age, a handkerchief still in my bag just in case.

You're only young once, they say, but doesn't it go on for a long time? More years than you can bear.

Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories.

You must understand that your creativity comes alive when you spend time alone focusing on your projects without distractions.

But those are just words, and words are just stories, and eventually, always, stories come to an end.

That's the thing about being a criminal, " Kat told her. "Nothing ever goes according to plan.

The scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection.

The hope is that if we can increase youthfulness, we can postpone age-related diseases.

Don't depend on recent or current figures to forecast future prices; remember that many others knew them before you did

I think that we're all totally isolated beings and always will be.

My greatest talent is calmness and being positive. I concentrate on what you can do even in the worst of times. You don't judge by last week's errors or lost opportunity.

Regardless of your metabolism, if you stop consuming so many calories, you will lose weight.

How to Draw a Picture (XII) Know when you're finished, and when you are, put your pencil or your paintbrush down. All the rest is only life.