Advice to a new writer: There are no rules in this profession. Do what is good for you. Read books and watch films that stimulate your writing. In your writing, go where the pain is; go where the pleasure is; go where the excitement is. Believe in your own original approach, voice, characters, story. Ignore critics. Have nerve. Be stubborn.

You know nothing... And suppose the vampire who made you knew nothing, and the vampire who made that vampire knew nothing, and the vampire before him knew nothing, and so it goes back and back, nothing proceeding from nothing, until there is nothing! And we must live with the knowledge that there is no knowledge.

The greatest create of power you have on earth, whether you are an angel, a spirit, a man or woman or child is to help others.

The library furnished our dreams, helped us shape our ambitions, made up people of books and ideas and grand designs.

Cities have distinct personalities. It's a matter of knowing it.

Perhaps I fear him because I could love him again, and in loving him, I would come to need him, and in needing him, I would again be his faithful pupil in all things, only to discover that his patience for me is no substitute for the passion which long ago blazed in his eyes.

I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.