There is an inevitable divergence between the world as it is and the world as men perceive it.
Literature helps us transcend ourselves.
Childbirth changed my perception of my wife. She was now the bloodied special forces soldier who had fought and risked everything for our family.
I take six or seven years to write really small books. There is a kind of aesthetic of leanness, of brevity.
I am not much of a researcher as a novelist; I write mainly from experience.
I really do believe that people surprise you. And one of the powerful things about novels is that they're about characters, and those characters live their lives.
Many boys, probably most boys, have a first love before they fall in love with a woman. It begins the moment two boys realize they'd die for one another, that each cares more for the other than he does for himself, and it lasts usually until a second love comes on the scene, because most hearts aren't big enough to love more than one person like that.
We should do good whenever we can and do kindness at all times, for at all times we can.
The scientific doctrine of progress is destined to replace not only the myth of progress, but all other myths of human earthly destiny. It will inevitably become one of the cornerstones of man's theology, or whatever may be the future substitute for theology, and the most important external support for human ethics.
Ritualism is nothing more than a rut and the only difference between a rut and a grave is the length and the depth.
What I know from my friends who are cops is they keep their houses very clean, because they say you never know if you're coming back or not.