Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
All love is betrayal, in that it flatters life. The loveless man is best armed.
My mother didn't raise me to be a critic, but I seem to have become one anyway.
The real pleasure in writing this, for me, was discovering how little you need.
It is enough for the evil people to succeed, for the good people to do nothing.
There’s something sexy in cooking for a man who likes my food. Am I growing up?
If I never have to write another word about cricket again, I'll be a happy man.
When people say they are happy for you it may mean they are sad for themselves.
I'm convinced that it's energy and humor. The two of them combined equal charm.
Better to put things at the worst at first and reserve the best for a surprise.
Only by living absurdly is it possible to break out of this infinite absurdity.
I think it is vanity to want to put into a story anything but the story itself.
I can't think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does
Asian-Americans are still regarded as 'other' by many of their fellow-citizens.
I often felt myself to be an outsider, which is great training for all writers.
I am here, come closer," the old donkey said with her eyes. "I will mother you.
The only reaction against an unbearable society is equally unbearable nonsense.
You can't change old people. Unlike middle-aged people, they do what they want.
And internalization is used in this country as a very effective political tool.
It's tremendous what can happen when suddenly you make an emotional connection.
Aside from the nagging, he's the most entertaining hallucination I've ever had.
Writing is a form of herding. I herd words into little paragraph-like clusters.
From him to the stars, in all directions, there was only silence and emptiness.
Certainly on the vast windy plain, there was plenty of nothing to be looked at.
Nobody run off with her,” Roscoe said. "She just run off with herself, I guess.
Writers talk about the agony of writing; I talk about the agony of not writing.
Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.
People who drink too much, health, and greedy. Hoard a treasure we do not like.
Brazil is bigger than Europe, wilder than Africa, and weirder than Baffin Land.
His whole personality was like an elaborate joke that he never stopped telling.
I studied the cello for a long time, from when I was little up through college.
Being a writer can be isolating. It's good to be among readers and booksellers.
Carpe Dium, I say. Seize the day. Grab it by the throat and rattle its bollocks
…that's what old people are here for, — else their experience is of little use.
If life is often so hard as this, I don't see how we ever shall get through it.
We'll all grow up someday, Meg, we might as well know what we want. ~Amy March~
it was easier to do a friendly thing than it was to stay and be thanked for it.
I know what the Giller nominee effect is, but we'll see what the next level is.
I would never have thought my collection of short stories would win the Giller.
Boring people don't know they're boring. That's the problem with boring people.
I look placid, you see, that's why people think I'm fine. Inside I worry a lot.
Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.
We never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic powers
What was the use of trying to expound a truth, if the majority preferred a lie?
And out of heart's pain comes heart's peace; and out of desire, accomplishment.
For me writing has always felt like praying even when I wasn't writing prayers.
A good agent will sometimes need to be a scrapper, and that's the one you want.
Crime has always been a regrettably consistent element of the human experience.
But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.
Unlike Hezbollah, Israel's more modest aim is to survive, and that it has done.
I wanted a picture of Jamaica that isn't in books, and certainly not in novels.