Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to.

It is through our extended family that we first learn to compromise and come to an understanding that even if we don't always agree about things we can still love and look out for each other.

I always thought that bagels and lox was my soul food, but it turns out it's sushi.

Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrians Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.

I jealously guard my research time and I love fully immersing myself in those dusty old books and papers. It's one of the most enjoyable parts of my job.

The sky was a sparkling succession of black diamonds on black velvet made crystal clear by the blackout.

I believe the era of the militant lady is back.

Without archives many stories of real people would be lost, and along with those stories, vital clues that allow us to reflect and interpret our lives today.

Research material can turn up anywhere - in a dusty old letter in an archive, a journal or some old photographs you find in a charity shop.

Writers of novels live in a strange world where what's made up is as important as what's real.

Books have a vital place in our culture. They are the source of ideas, of stories that engage and stretch the imagination and most importantly, inspire.

Because someone imagined it so we have, if you can imagine it you can release it.

All writers are exiles: some by circumstance, some by choice.

Many people see their problems to be permanent because they continue to face them with the same mental attitudes that created them.

Stories are how we learn best. We absorb numbers and facts and details, but we keep them all glued into our heads with stories.

The capacity of any conqueror is more likely than not to be an illusion produced by the incapacity of his adversary.

The one who anticipates the action wins. The one who does not, loses.

Gender data is important. If girls don’t have a birth certificate, how do we know how many are marrying as children?

Don't boast about your hardheartedness or refusal to shed tears. Instead, pray that God will give you a tender heart which will sympathize with others.

The conclusion, so vexatious to democracy, that wisdom and not popularity qualifies for rule may be forced upon us by the peril in atomic energy.

We only exist in terms of how we think we exist. Meaning every cultural development is fabricated and can be fabricated.