The right song can turn an emperor into a laughingstock, can bring down dynasties.

I suspect there are two kinds of novelists. Those who have a point of view and have something to say and then write a novel in order to say that thing, and those of us who write the book in order to find out what we think about that thing.

Because there are mysteries. Because there are things that people are forbidden to speak about. Because there are things they do not remember.

And there are always people who find their lives have become so unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plane of existence.' 'They kill themselves, you mean?' said Bod. [...] 'Indeed.' 'Does it work? Are they happier dead?' 'Sometimes. Mostly, no. It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

You have to believe. Otherwise, it will never happen.

Books were safer than other people anyway.

Hunchbacks danced at my wedding for luck. It's a thing you don't see nowadays.