And what he meant was that maths wasn't like life because in life there are no straightforward answers in the end

I've come to realize that most good ideas are precisely the ones you can't describe.

As a kid, I didn't read a great deal of fiction, and I've forgotten most of what I did read.

Well, we're meant to be writing stories today.

Most of my work consisted of crossing out. Crossing out was the secret of all good writing.

Eventually scientists will discover something that explains ghosts, just like they discovered electricity, which explained lightning, and it might be something about people's brains, or something about the earth's magnetic field, or it might be some new force altogether. And then ghosts won't be mysteries. They will be like electricity and rainbows and nonstick frying pans.

Family, that slippery word, a star to every wandering bark, and everyone sailing under a different sky.