The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

Desire is the essence of a man.

I know what I believe, I know what I want to do, and I’m just comfortable saying it, and laying it out there.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

After it is all over, the religion of man is his most important possession.

Sometimes I write stuff that strangely predicts what’s going to happen in my life.

I wanted to use my fame and this face that everyone knows so well to help uplift and inspire people around the world.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.

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.

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

Like anything else that happens on its own, the act of writing is beyond currency. Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you’ve got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration.

I like entertaining people. I really miss it.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern you life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

You have enough people against you… be for yourself.

I am not a self-help writer. I am a self-problem writer. When people read my books, I provoke some things. I cannot justify my work. I do my work; it is up to them to classify it, to judge.

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

You can stroke people with words.

Be more dedicated to making solid achievements than in running after swift but synthetic happiness.

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around.

It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.

People want you to fail.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

We spend our lives, all of us, waiting for the great day, the great battle, or the deed of power. But that external consummation is not given to many: nor is it necessary. So long as our being is tensed, directed with passion, towards that which is the spirit of all things, then that spirit will emerge from our own hidden, nameless effort.

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

It’s hard to tell with these Internet startups if they’re really interested in building companies or if they’re just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don’t really want to build a company, they won’t luck into it. That’s because it’s so hard that if you don’t have a passion, you’ll give up.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

I would rather die than do something which I know to be a sin, or to be against God’s will.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

You want to do good things, and once you’ve done a couple of good things in a row, you think ‚Well gee, let’s not mess this up.‘ But I am lucky at this point that I have something I really love to do, and it completely holds my attention. I never feel frustrated by it.

If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s ‚mature‘ critics often are.

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.

Success has always been a great liar.

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

I sincerely believe… that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

All I do is work out. Oh my God! Half my life is spent in a gym somewhere, sweating.

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

Without football, my life is worth nothing.

Each doctor makes a much, much more important job than I do, but at the end, nobody talks about him. We all know about it, but we don’t really think about it.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

I remember very little about writing the first series of ‚Hitchhiker’s.‘ It’s almost as if someone else wrote it.

I want to go and go, and then drop dead in the middle of something I’m loving to do. And if that doesn’t happen, if I wind up sitting in a wheelchair, at least I’ll have my high heels on.

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

My dad has kind of been the standard for me, he played 16 years in the league, and since I’ve been in the league, every year that I go through and deal with the scratches, the bumps and bruises, just the grind that it is to go through one NBA season.

Remember that the revolution is what is important, and each one of us, alone, is worth nothing.