To destroy is easier than to create, and that is why so many people are ready to demonstrate against what they reject. But what would they say if one asked them what they wanted instead?

Animals have one thing that puts them way ahead of people: they don't dissemble, and you don't have to pretend in front of them.

If we lose our memory, we lose ourselves. Forgetting is one of the symptoms of death. Without memory we cease to be human beings.

I realised the amazing power of literature and of the human imagination generally: to make the dead live and to stop the living from dying.

Graveyards remind us of the vanity of all human endeavour.

The world is like an enormous set of scales. When evil begins to outweigh good, angels cram themselves in on the lighter side. You can't see them, but there they are, restoring the balance.

Fear is the touch of death, death reminding us of its existence.