“This pain is comfort. It is the solace of physicality, like a touch.”

“Doing nothing was as honourable as any available course of action. Think of Hamlet, think of Job, think of Jesus before Pilate.”

“Suffering is inevitable. It is part of the human condition. It is written in the human script.”

“I may not be free, but Im not about to surrender the illusion of choice.”

“The future is certain. It is just not known.”

“I stare out at the real world projected on the windows”

“And if I'm guilty of having gratuitous sex, then I'm also guilty of having gratuitous violence, and gratuitous feasting, and gratuitous description of clothes, and gratuitous heraldry, because very...”

“Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don't have something in the back of your head driving you nuts, you may not do anything. It's not a good arrangement. If I were God, I w...”

“The calling of an author is more than just to entertain, but also to share ones experiences with the world.”

“Sometimes two people have to fall apart, to realize how much they need to fall back together.”

“Good literature is one key to peace. When we stop reading each other, when we stop paying attention to each other's words and stories, we too easily oppose one another.”

“There is only one motive for writing a novel: to be published and read. To me there is no distinction between the mystery novel and the novel, only between good books and bad books. A good book tak...”

“The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader. I know people who read without hearing the sentence sounds and they were the fastest readers. Eye readers we call them. They get the meanin...”

“All these are readers, and their gestures, their craft, the pleasure, the responsibility and the power they derive from reading, are common with mine. I am not alone.”

“The way a book is read- which is to say,the qualities a reader brings to a book- can have as much to do with its worth as anything the author puts into it.”