Make your lives a masterpiece, you only get one canvas.

There are some things you can't learn at any university, except for one, the University of Life... the only college where everyone is a permanent student.

... how terrible is the pain of the mind and heart when the freedom of mankind is suppressed!

The devil has not vanished simply because people refuse to believe he exists, no more than God has.

Socrates: Have you noticed on our journey how often the citizens of this new land remind each other it is a free country? Plato: I have, and think it odd they do this.Socrates: How so, Plato?Plato: It is like reminding a baker he is a baker, or a sculptor he is asculptor.Socrates: You mean to say if someone is convinced of their trade, they haveno need to be reminded.Plato: That is correct.Socrates: I agree. If these citizens were convinced of their freedom, they would not need reminders.

While art thrives on the blazing colours of scandal, literature blossoms on the dark soil of tragedy.

... The Book is more important than your plans for it. You have to go with what works for The Book - if your ideas appear hollow or forced when they are put on paper, chop them, erase them, pulverise them and start again. Don't whine when things are not going your way, because they are going the right way for The Book, which is more important. The show must go on, and so must The Book.