courage is the gift of character

One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.

Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.

Do not plan for ventures before finishing what's at hand.

Better a serpent than a stepmother!

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.

Short is the joy that guilty pleasure brings.

Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Tragedy isn't getting something or failure to get it; it's losing something you already have. Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.

Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends.

Silence and chaste reserve is woman's genuine praise, and to remain quiet within the house.

I think I said that every generation had its weaklings--that that was one of the penalties of greatness--but that their failings were seldom remembered by posterity.

It always helps me connect with characters, to think about what music they respond to

That's the only dog I know who can smell someone just thinking about food.

Space has no top, no bottom; in fact, it is bottomless both at the bottom and the top.

Lampis the ship owner, on being asked how he acquired his great wealth, replied, My great wealth was acquired with no difficulty, but my small wealth, my first gains, with much labor.

Fact is only what you believe and fact and fiction work as a team.

I'm OMAC! Evacuate this section! I'm going to destroy it!

The only other thing which I think is important is: Don't write a book or start a book with the expectation of communicating a message in a very important way.

I don't like novels that end happily. They depress me so much

I'm not religious. I love what Clive James said the other day. James is a brilliant writer, but he keeps on writing poems on stuff. And he said, "God doesn't have a leg to stand on."