In 1980, I published my first novel, in the usual swirl of unjustified hope and justified anxiety.

A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.

The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

My mind loves you so much it wants to own you. My heart loves you so much it wants to set you free.

Creativity is when a stupid clever soul gets up from bed and does amazing things that makes the world think he is wise.

But then Froi looked back to where his work lay unfinished and it made him sad because there had been something about the touch of earth in his hands that made him feel worthwhile.

That's the crazy thing about lies. You start to fall for them, yourself.

The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.

In many churches, the message of justification- how to get right with God- is preached over and over again. But much less is said about sanctification- how to live after you're converted.

I've always been into endurance sport, which I think is more about your mind pushing your body, which is definitely why that Bear Grylls book sung to me.

Biological clock? I don't even own a watch.

In the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament we ought to be like the Blessed in heaven before the Divine Essence

There is no courage but in innocence; no constancy but in an honest cause.