Words are cold, muddy toads trying to understand sprites dancing in a field-but they're all we have.
Yann MartelI meet a number of people as a writer of fiction who say "Oh, I don't read much fiction," as if the history of the United States, just as an example, isn't an exercise in storytelling and myth-making.
Yann MartelLife on a lifeboat isnโt much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldnโt be more simple, nor the stakes higher.
Yann MartelAll living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.
Yann MartelThese people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart.
Yann Martel