Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.
I think the story is the most ancient form of human entertainment.
For white men, to live is to own, or to try to own more, or to die trying to own more. Their appetites are astonishing! They own wardrobes, slaves, carriages, houses, warehouses, and ships. They own ports, cities, plantations, valleys, mountains, chains of islands. They own this world, its jungles, its skies, and its seas. Yet they complain that Dejima is a prison. They complain they are not free.
If only,’ Shiroyama dreams, ‘human beings were not masks behind masks behind masks. If only this world was a clean board of lines and intersections. If only time was a sequence of considered moves and not a chaos of slippages and blunders.
The her that lived in her looked out through her eyes, through my eyes, and at the me that lives in me.
I rarely ever put my head above the rampart and see where this big lumbering behemoth called 'global literature' is going.
When insolvent, pack minimally, with a valise tough enough to be thrown onto a London pavement from a first- or second-floor window. Insist on hotel rooms no higher.
The rain's innumerable hooves spatter on the streets and roofs.
I think it's natural for youth to be drawn to newness: The world is still new for them.
People b'lief the world is built so an tellin em it ain't so caves the roofs on their heads'n'maybe yours.
She was widely read enough to appreciate my literary wit but not so widely read that she knew my sources. I like that in a woman.
A life can get knocked into a new orbit by a car crash, a lottery win or just a bleary-eyed consultant giving bad news in a calm voice.
As an experienced editor, I disapprove of flashbacks, foreshadowings, and tricksy devices; they belong in the 1980s with M.A.s in postmodernism and chaos theory.
As long as our civilisation keeps trundling along generally forwards, then there is the possibility of a future where ethnicity is merely an interesting badge, not a uniform you can't take off.
Write something every single day, even if it's just three lines. And it doesn't matter if it's any good - just write something every day.
I elbowed my way into the grubby café, bought a pie that tasted of shoe polish and a pot of tea with cork crumbs floating in it, and eavesdropped on a pair of Shetland pony breeders. Despondency makes one hanker after lives one never led. Why have you given your life to books, TC? Dull, dull, dull! The memoirs are bad enough, but all that ruddy fiction! Hero goes on a journey, stranger comes to town, somebody wants something, they get it or they don't, will is pitted against will. "Admire me, for I am a metaphor.
When I think about it, I'm happily bewildered that people will preorder my books They'll preorder me. What a lucky guy!
I wonder how many years Suga has been carrying his curse around with him. I forget that other people in the world have broken parts too.
I think words operate like musical notes that the eyeball hears.
As many truths as men. Occasionally, I glimpse a truer Truth, hiding in imperfect simulacrums of itself, but as I approach, it bestirs itself & moves deeper into the thorny swamp of dissent.
over 85% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Dreams are all I have ever truly owned.
What do I miss? Second-hand bookshops where I can find things I had no idea I wanted. AbeBooks helps, but it doesn't have that smell.
What is "poker"? A card game where abler liars take money off less able liars.
Oh, diplomacy ... it mops up war's spillages; legitimizes its outcomes; gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.
Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Every day we present the best quotes! Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends
or simply: