You want Paradise, you gotta build it on war, on blood, on envy and naked greed.

Of course I know that the twins are only words on a page, and I'm certainly not the sort of writer who talks to his characters or harbours any illusions about the creative process. But at the same time, I think it's juvenile and arrogant when literary writers compulsively remind their readers that the characters aren't real. People know that already. The challenge is to make an intelligent reader suspend disbelief, to seduce them into the reality of a narrative.

Most distracting of all, though, was not the threat of danger but the allure of beauty.

The world changes too fast. You take your eyes off something that's always been there, and the next minute it's just a memory.

Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them.

History indulges strange whims in the way it dresses its women.

Most true things are kind of corny, don’t you think? But we make them more sophisticated out of sheer embarrassment.