“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”

“Being a writer all boils down to this: It's you, in a chair, staring at a page. And you're either going to stay in that chair until words are written, or you're going to give up and walk away. The ...”

“When male authors write love stories, the heroine tends to end up dead.”

“Im likely to stay here, pen in hand, until dusk comes and my writing melts into the twilight.”

“So who is cruel? You, cruel reader, you are.”

“So who is cruel? You, cruel reader, you are.”

“Denna is a wild thing," I explained. "Like a hind or a summer storm. If a storm blows down your house, or breaks a tree, you don't say the storm was mean. It was cruel. It acted according to its na...”

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”

“Cruelty and fear shake hands together. An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.”