Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword.

Secrets affect you more than you’d think. You lie to keep them hidden. You steer talk away from them. You worry someone’ll discover yours and tell the world. You think you are in charge of the secret, but isn’t it the secret who’s actually using you?

If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready’.

War's an auction where whoever can pay the most in damage and still be standing wins.

I still haven't quite got used to eating live fish.

I am going to tell you a secret. Everything is about wanting. Everything. Things happen because of people wanting. Watch closely, and you’ll see what I mean.

A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.