I project myself so deeply into the characters in novels that I'm not thinking about my own life.

Novels are fictions and therefore they tell lies, but through those lies every novelist attempts to tell the truth about the world.

There's hope for everyone. That's what makes the world go round.

Stories only happen to those who are able to tell them.

It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that I don't know half as much as I think I do.

One should never underestimate the power of books.

If you're not ready for everything, you're not ready for anything.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

It often happens that things are other than what they seem, and you can get yourself into trouble by jumping to conclusions.

Memory is the space in which a thing happens for a second time.

It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not.

while modernity is not Christianity, modernity is the product of a Christian civilization. Lately the defects of modernity have been made plain to us while its virtues have been taken for granted.

It isn't important to come out on top what matters is to be the one who comes out alive.

The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

On a night without moon or stars you can't see a thing, but you can imagine anything.

Give me a house furnished with books rather than furniture! Both, if you can, but books at any rate!

I take no pride in my artistic talents; they are God-given and I see absolutely no reason to become puffed up over something that one has received.

Discussing external migration issues is impossible without discussing internal migration issues

One of the things about leadership is that you cannot be a moderate, balanced, thoughtful, careful articulator of policy. You've got to be on the lunatic fringe.

So, I just kind of played the way I played and then eventually we kind of figured out what worked best for the band. So, I definitely changed my stuff up and I think we're playing really tight now.

I don't want to go to Peru. "How do you know? You've never been there." I've never been to hell either and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go there.