Sticks and stones, I'll break yer bones, but names ain't worth a quarrel.

We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.

I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God.... My books are about killing God.

Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.

Everyone, from the Mother Superior to the priests to my parents--they were so upset and reproachful...I felt as if something they all passionately believed in depended on me carrying on with something I didn't.

The Lord of the Rings' is fundamentally an infantile work. Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He's interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.

I am a story teller. If I wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon.