In a whisper he began begging for—and, as the sun set, received—the concession people always beg for: a little more time.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.

Rabbits are played. Nowadays it's all about the turtles. Tell them it's a ninja, they'll freak.

Architecture is the frame of human existence. We must dedicate this existence more to beauty. For if poetic principle has deserted us, how long are we going to last?

What you get will never make you happy; who you become will make you very happy or very sad.

A leader's lasting value is measured by succession.

You have to be in the world to understand what the spiritual is about, and you have to be spiritual in order to truly be able to accept what the world is about.

You don't have to write like David Foster Wallace or James Baldwin or Maggie Nelson - indeed, you shouldn't. Those writers are doing it better than you ever could.

Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.

You've got a bit of a temper, don't you?

It often happens that when couples get their relationship to God straightened out, their relationships with one another begin to straighten out as well.