Reaching the finish line, never walking, and enjoying the race. These three, in this order, are my goals.

I can be hurt, you know. I can get as exhausted as anybody else. I can feel so bad I want to cry, too.

Among the many values in life, I appreciate freedom most.

Everybody feels safe belonging not to the excluded minority but to the excluding majority. You think, Oh, I’m glad that’s not me. It’s basically the same in all periods in all societies. If you belong to the majority, you can avoid thinking about lots of troubling things.

Like most novelists, I like to do exactly the opposite of what I'm told. It's in my nature as a novelist. Novelists can't trust anything they haven't seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands.

What's really important here," I whispered loudly to myself,"is not the big things other people have thought up, but the small things you, yourself have

No matter what the situation may be, I still take pleasure in witnessing the joy of others.