Starting a new novel is a little like starting a new relationship - you have to be prepared to commit for at least three years and put up with the domestic tedium as well as the emotional highs!

Believe, my child. Faith is the food of survival.

Love wasn't a piece of music you could play over and over again with different interpretations. It actually needed to be improvised as you went along.

Death strips all men of dignity.

Humiliation scars deeper than the lash.

Trust is won not given.

We cannot choose the times we live in. Just as, sometimes, we cannot choose whom we love.