It is sometimes hard to escape the belief that history exists against the artist.

Grief loves the hollow; all it wants is to hear its own echo.

I wanted to wear her as you would a piece of clothing, to fold into her ribs, be a stone in her mouth.

There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible.

The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order.

Nothing is more acceptable than what we are born into.

I am of the firm opinion that no one should tell writers what to do, or what to write, or how to write.

When I first began writing In the Country of Men all I had was the voice of the protagonist. He intrigued me and my desire to want to know him and his world became almost compulsive.

And I remember this man who never ran out of poems telling me once that knowing a book by heart is like carrying a house inside your chest.

And I remember this man who never ran out of poems telling me once that 'knowing a book by heart is like carrying a house inside your chest.

Can you become a man without becoming your father?

The view that man was ever to be drawn by some vision of the unattainable shining ahead, doomed ever to aspire, but not to achieve, my life and my values could not bring me to that.

There is no sin too great for God's grace. There is no habit too big for his healing. There is no label too strong for his love.

Women have eyes in their hearts that see what men cannot.

Writing: I certainly do rewrite my central myth in every book and would never read or trust any writer who did not also do so.

Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.

All these years I kept my true nature hidden, running along like a small shadow so nobody could catch me. -Ying Ying

I have always been attracted to Australians and Australia.

The wars they will be fought again The holy dove be caught again bought and sold and bought again; the dove is never free.

Our business is to have great credit and to use it little.

These new theories of the universe, that there are multiple universes just bubbling up constantly - it's all pretty wild.