We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.

Children are not less intelligent than adults; what they are is less informed.

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

And think what worrying does: has anyone ever added a single hour to the length of his life by worrying about it?

For that reason you can't write with music playing, and anyone who says he can is either writing badly, or not listening to the music, or lying. You need to hear what you're writing, and for that you need silence

Tolkien, who created this marvellous vehicle, doesn't go anywhere in it. He just sits where he is. What I mean by that is that he always seems to be looking backwards, to a greater and more golden past; and what's more he doesn't allow girls or women any important part in the story at all. Life is bigger and more interesting than The Lord of the Rings thinks it is.

The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.