Vocabularies are crossing circles and loops. We are defined by the lines we choose to cross or to be confined by.

Young girls are sad. They like to be; it makes them feel strong.

I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity. If you look really hard at almost anybody, and try to see why they're doing what they're doing, taking a dig at them ceases to be what you want to do even if you hate them.

Think of this - that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.

You are safe with me." "I am not at all safe, with you. But I have no desire to be elsewhere.

Louis de Bernires is in the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh. . .he has only to look into his world, one senses, for it to rush into reality, colours and touch and taste.

I don't like gurus. I don't like people who ask you to follow or believe. I like people who ask you to think independently.