When you're waiting for a bus, the thing to do is smoke a cigarette.

Teaching writing puts you on the point of a pin in terms of what you want your own writing to be.

I sometimes think that we expect too much resolution in this world.

Early in the phase of being in a female body, there's all this desire that comes at you, a lot of it hostile, a lot of it dangerous, a lot of it ruinous.

I do some messing around with things, not necessarily about me but about place and people and the things around.

I grew up flying over oceans and moving and sailing.

There's a lot of water in everything I've ever written. There's always oceans and pools.

You can sometimes find something good on the other side of doing something very, very painful.

In order to have a real life of any romance, there has to be a level of fantasy.

I don't think you can have an imagination without having fantasy, and you can't have that rich a life without an imagination.

That's what perfect means. You're finished.

The plan, a memory of the future, tries on reality to see if it fits.

I need good friends who can say, 'I love you to death, but you look terrible in that, and you need to change right now.'

Every country has criminals who have to be fought. They can exist anywhere, including the government or the army - or outside the government and army.

People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten.

Our objective is to position Nissan in the top rank of the car industry. Until we get there, there will be no rest.

When Beethoven went deaf, the mynah bird just used to mime.

You did not bring down two of the royal guard in an unceremonious heap because the woman in the middle tripped.

I've put up with too much, too long, and now I'm just too intelligent, too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserve anything less.

My heart jumps out of its cage to see what the fuss is about. Damn thing. Always so hopeful, but my voice hides it well.

What can I tell you, except the stupid little I know?