I knew from the age of 16 that I wanted to be a writer because I just didn’t think I could do anything else. So I read and read and wrote short stories and dreamed of escape.

I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

I’ve been blessed to be somebody that’s been climbing that success mountain top for years of hard work, you know, but now it’s all connecting. And now, the whole world is watching, you know what I’m saying, and it feels good ‚cause it’s good energy. This is all positive vibes, and good vibes and good energy, so it feels incredible.

I have dual citizenship; it just so happens I live in America. I would like to go back to Wales. I’m obsessed with my childhood, and at least three times a week dream I am back there.

It is my desire, in the office of a Christian minister, to do nothing which I cannot do with my whole heart. Having said this, I have said all.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

‚Nation‘ was one that I’d have killed myself if I hadn’t written it. It was absolutely important to me that I wrote it. It was good for my soul.

I think I work much harder on the children’s books. I suppose I enjoy that. I find it interesting that although there are more than 30 books in the Discworld series, it is the four that were written for children which have won the awards. I’ve never been quite certain why this is.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.

I have worked hard since my childhood and worked as a labourer. I put my mind and heart into it.

I’m just writing, writing, writing. I keep these tablets on me until I’m inspired to go back in and make the music. I never take a break from my pen, because I pride myself on that.

I don’t live for the accolades. I’m more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.

You might sooner get lightning out of incense smoke than true action or passion out of your modern English religion.

Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.

The incomparable greatness of the religions of the East lies in their having been second to none in vibrating with the passion for unity. This note, which is essential to every form of mysticism, has even penetrated them so deeply that we find ourselves falling under a spell simply by uttering the names of their Gods.

I don’t know if I officially proofread my father’s book, but I read it. I did get some conception of grammar in general from that.

I always want to create and do things, or draw.

The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if you’re really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

I spent much of my childhood in northern Quebec, and often there was no radio, no television – there wasn’t a lot to entertain us. When it rained, I stayed inside reading, writing, drawing.

If you have passion, there is no need for excuses because your enthusiasm will trump any negative reasoning you might come up with. Enthusiasm makes excuses a nonissue.

At the end of the day, the TV show is the best job in the world. I get to go anywhere I want, eat and drink whatever I want. As long as I just babble at the camera, other people will pay for it. It’s a gift.

‚Bellyache‘ is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren’t real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don’t know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.

I wasn’t a kid growing up thinking, ‚One day I’ll get an Oscar and make a speech.‘ That wasn’t on my mind.

Writing is my love. If you love something, you find a lot of time. I write for two hours a day, usually starting at midnight; at times, I start at 11.

Never regret what you don’t write.

Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.

My mother was a very wonderful woman. When she and my dad divorced, she moved to California and worked two jobs in the cannery at night and as a waitress during the day. But she saved enough money to establish a restaurant.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

As a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

You either make dust or eat dust.

I love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.

Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

Films and television and even comic books are churning out vast quantities of fictional narratives, and the public continues to swallow them up with great passion. That is because human beings need stories.

I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously.

Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

I always felt that if I was going to do a movie, I wanted it to be authentic.

It take many a year, mon, and maybe some bloodshed must be, but righteousness someday prevail.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

The presence of passion within you is the greatest gift you can receive. Treat it as a miracle.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

I do things I love doing. Sometimes that is maybe going out to have a drink with friends, going out partying or whatever.

If you want to have a life that is worth living, a life that expresses your deepest feelings and emotions and cares and dreams, you have to fight for it.