Dreaming is the day job of novelists, but sharing our dreams is a still more important task for us. We cannot be novelists without this sense of sharing something.

What’s more, you’re loads better than you think you are.” “So why is it I get to thinking that way?” I puzzled. “That’s because you’re only half-living.” she said briskly. “The other half is still untapped somewhere.

Sometimes it's not the people who change, it's the mask that falls off.

I don't know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you.

You couldn’t begin to imagine who I am, where I’m going, or what I’m about to do, All of you are trapped here. You can’t go anywhere, forward or back. But I’m not like you. I have work to do. I have a mission to accomplish. And so, with your permission, I shall move ahead.

Is this what it means to go back to square one? Most likely. He had nothing left to lose, other than his life.