“The antidote to envy is one’s own work. Always one’s own work. Not the thinking about it. Not the assessing of it. But the doing of it. The answers you want can come only from the work itself.”

We are constantly telling ourselves what we most want to know, and at the same time are deaf to it. Why does envy have such a fierce bite?

Why do we fall silent or get worried just as our story is about to spring out of our control and into its own life? Whose shadow falls across the page?

Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing.

The only way [the book can be written] is to set the unbook-the gilt-framed portrait of the book-right there on the altar and sacrifice it, truly sacrifice it.

Daily life is always extraordinary when rendered precisely.

Fiction must convince our bodies for it to have any chance of convincing our minds.

Suicide is not an answer, it’s destruction.

Do I feel good enough? Do I feel big enough? Do I feel sexy enough?” Some days, the answer is ‘yes’ but sometimes it’s not.

I pray and wait for an answer in pictures, words or ideas.

I believe that children may enter these divine portals easier, because they are seeking for answers in the purest way.

Portals of divinity are everywhere.

Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.

The Muslim people is calling upon you, Jerusalem is appealing to you, will anyone answer?

I met a lot of the senior Taliban, and I asked them precisely [about Mullah Omar]. The most common answer was he is humble. And that was very true.