“it is sometimes hard to tell what is real. We often invent what isn’t there. Or ignore what is.”

In fiction writing, I would say there are several different strands that have been woven through my own writing, and each influenced by a different group of writers.

The second squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay. The first is unyielding, predetermined. The second makes up its mind as it goes along.

In this world, artists are joyous. Unpredictability is the life of their paintings, their music, their novels. They delight in events not forecasted, happenings without explanation, retrospective.

In this world, there are two times. There is mechanical time and there is body time.” “They do not keep clocks in their houses. Instead, they listen to their heartbeats. They feel the rhythms of their moods and desires.”

So it’s really about two and a half months that I’ll feel like I can recover some silence in my life…which is so hard to find.

There is a cultural diversity that’s very valuable, and it’s valuable to have different ways of looking at the world.

To that end, I believe that we should make room for both spiritual atheists and thinking believers.

And if the present has little effect on the future, present actions need not be weighed for their consequence.

As I understand it, a universe is a … well, a totality. A universe is everything that is, as far as the inside of the thing.

Each time is true, but the truths are not the same.

For my students who are trying to learn the craft of writing in a writing class – contemporary literature is what’s most useful.

If a person holds no ambitions in this world, he suffers unknowingly.

I have no opposition at all to technology. I think technology is a wonderful thing that has to be used thoughtfully, and we can’t just assume that every bit of new technology improvesthe quality of life; it’s really in how the technology is used.

The belief or disbelief in such a Being is therefore a matter of faith.

It’s exciting having a student who is not used to expressing their emotional side and bringing that out in them and see that developing and helping to nurture that.

I should have written books instead of reading them.

He wasn’t flashy and he wouldn’t score you goals. But he was hard and skilful and gave you everything he had. More than that he was totally honest.

Business is hard, really hard, but it’s worth it.

A good journalist’s first priority should be to separate propaganda from fact – but sometimes its very hard to do that.

My mum and dad had worked incredibly hard to afford me an education.

We were from totally different social backgrounds. This is what is very hard for an American to understand, but we could have been five guys from Mars.

People are not the best because they work hard. They work hard because they are the best.

To the new ‘Apprentice’ candidates I would say to follow your gut instincts, be yourself and get ready to work hard for the next few months. Oh, and try to have some fun!

Life doesn’t reward the naturally clever or strong but those who can learn to fight and work hard and never quit.