I worked out what would make me happy, and I worked out what I wanted to do, and I trained myself to do the job that would make those two things happen

Believe me, you have to have a certain confidence in your powers of descretion to let a dentist loose with a drill in your mouth less than an hour after you've...um...entertained his wife.

If I don't cry while writing a key emotional scene, my gut feeling is it's failed.

How is it possible to exist with so much pain?

Sit here long enough you get to know everything. You listen, see ?" She taps the side of her head. "Nobody listens any more. Everyone knows what they want to hear, but nobody actually listens.

I was once told by someone wise that writing is perilous as you cannot always guarantee your words will be read in the spirit in which they were written.

You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.