The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.

Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today because if you enjoy it today, you can do it again tomorrow.

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Anyone who wants reassurance of that should read one of my first drafts. But I'm one of the world's great rewriters.

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.

An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.

You can see the evil, the evil is everywhere. As Far as I can tell I can build a town full of horror.

Water is the ink that writes the poetry of life.

Your biggest asset is a positive attitude. That more than anything else determines your earnings.

I'd been shouting and shouting and no-one wanted to hear me.

You can’t help someone just by making a wish to do so, you have to take action.

Even when I was close to defeat I rose to my feet

Those who come forward will not be offered an automatic pass to citizenship and should be expected to pay a substantial fine or penalty to participate in the temporary program.

And then, in that regal silence, finally - I began to meditate on (and with) God.

I am now willing to forgive myself . . . for believing I could offer something to others before I have offered it to myself.

I think mostly the commodifying comes after I've done something that has some other value to me.