Young writers should read books past bedtime and write things down in notebooks when they are supposed to be doing something else.

To Beatrice- My love flew like a butterfly Until death swooped down like a bat As the poet Emma Montana McElroy said: 'That's the end of that.

It is one of the peculiar truths of life that people often say things that they know full well are ridiculous.

We are all told to ignore bullies. It's something they teach you, and they can teach you anything. It doesn't mean you learn it. It doesn't mean you believe it. One should never ignore bullies. One should stop them.

I kind of always think my work is unfilmable, and when I meet people who are interested in filming it, I'm always stunned.

Sometimes when someone tells a ridiculous lie, it is best to ignore it entirely.

One can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.