The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

When we launched a new company, I reviewed the ads and marketing materials and asked those presenting the campaign to read everything aloud to test the phrasing and concept. If I could grasp it quickly, then it passed with muster. We would get our message across only if it was understandable at first glance.

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

I don’t let my religious world get too complicated.

Put it this way: If I asked, ‚How’s business?‘ and you say, ‚Boomin‘ or ‚Amazing,‘ I already know the answer.

If you’re waiting for the perfect moment, you’ll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There’s nothing foolproof.

What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.

A speech idiosyncrasy, in the same way as an air quote, is really justifiable only if it’s employed very sparingly and if the user consciously intends to be using it.

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

My name can’t be that tough to pronounce!

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

Coffee is a language in itself.

I like the sound a typewriter makes.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

I first had the idea of writing a popular book about the universe in 1982. My intention was partly to earn money to pay my daughter’s school fees.

Syntax, my lad. It has been restored to the highest place in the republic.

An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

I don’t know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

If you want to talk about something new, you have to make up a new kind of language.

You have to dream intentionally. Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally.

Any fact that needs to be disclosed should be put out now or as quickly as possible, because otherwise the bleeding will not end.

The moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

Writing has always had that tactile quality for me. It’s a physical experience.

We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.

I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English.

It is in this power of saying everything, and yet saying nothing too plainly, that the perfection of art consists.

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

Prayer is such a basic foundation of a Christian’s relationship with God. It’s how we communicate and fellowship with Him. But a surprising number of people, young and old, new and even long-time Christians, say they’re not satisfied with their prayer life.

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.

Pressed into service means pressed out of shape.

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

I’m so glad I never feel important, it does complicate life!

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

I once did a three-hour interview with Radio Oxford only to be told the microphone hadn’t picked me up.

No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.

Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

To be clear: we have fights and problems like any other couple.

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.

The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other.

War is what happens when language fails.

I’m blessed to have such a tight-knit family that we can talk about anything. Whether we talk frequently or not, since we’re on separate ends of the country, there are a lot of moving parts, and we always stay tight and find that center ground that keeps us together.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

I don’t control my writing – it controls me.

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.

All fiction is about people, unless it’s about rabbits pretending to be people. It’s all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that’s what we call ‚the plot‘.

Dance music is no longer a simple Donna Summer beat. It’s become a whole language that I find fascinating and exciting. Eventually, it will lose the dance tag and join the fore of rock.

I’m happy to be a writer – of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn’t a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

I’m the most boring person to talk to.

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that’s where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.