“Basically, the world is a giant shithole. But some of us are capable of imagining something better.”

“Some of us, I imagine, write out of anger; some out of pain; some write out of prejudice or loss, some out of passion, the promise of something better, perhaps the belief that—even now—a book can be capable of changing a life. Some of us write to remember, some to forget; some to change things, some to ensure things stay the same. Some of us—as my editor and agent will all too easily testify—write because we cannot stop.”

“Mediocrity will never do. You are capable of something better.”

“Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.”

“As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.”

“Imagining something is better than remembering something.”