“Are you going to give a speech?' she asked gaily.He gave a choked laugh. 'Of course not,' he said. 'Not for ages.''My cousin Davey gave one on his very first day!' ...'In the Lords, I remember. It ...”

“If theres a single idea I emphasize when people ask about writing, its that theres no right way to produce a book. But I do think that whatever you do, you should do regularly, whether its waking u...”

“Of course, thats one of the dreams of modernist literature, whether realist or fantastic: that the more stories we tell each other about such tragedies, the fewer of them there will be. Were still ...”

“There are a lot of ways for a novelist to create suspense, but also really only two: one a trick, one an art.The trick is to keep a secret. Or many secrets, even. In Lee Childs books, Jack Reacher ...”

“The Thames was beautiful, dark, and swift beneath the billion yellow and white lights of the city”

“He often envied people who hadn't read his favourite books. They had such happiness before them.”

“Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.”

“The decision is mine, and I choose happiness”

“...we confidently say that it's not worth trying to reach any conclusions merely because we decide to stop halfway along the path that would lead us straight to them.”

“Rome has been called the "Sacred City": - might not our Oxford be called so too? There is an air about it, resonant of joy and hope: it speaks with a thousand tongues to the heart: it waves its mig...”

“Youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.”

“Youth is like having a big plate of candy. Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure, simple state they were in before they ate the candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it al...”

“The secret of remaining young is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.”