Wine can be a better teacher than ink, and banter is often better than books

Those who rule the world get so little opportunity to run about and laugh and play in it.

Thos who rule the world get so little opportunity to run about and laugh and play in it.

Helping other people can be a cure not just for those who are in need, but for your soul as well.

None should say: ‘I can trust, ’ or ‘I cannot trust’ until he is master of the option, of trusting or not trusting.

Let your ambitions fly. Let nothing hold you back.

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.

When I'm describing wartime activities or violence I don't want to be too ornate, to prettify the picture. Once we trace them to the present, the prose becomes denser.

Clean plates don't lie.

It is when we are trapped in incessant streams of compulsive thinking that the universe really disintegrates for us, and we lose the ability to sense the interconnectedness of all that exists.

It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.

Writing novels is a way of living alternative lives.

I really do try to watch everything I say. Because one little tiny slip, and it's like the world is coming to an end!