“The head spins in theoretical disarray; no explanatory model suggests itself; bizarre ontologies loom. There is a feeling of intense confusion, but no clear idea about where the confusion lies.”

“To me the ultimate sin was refusing to listen to reason.”

“Coldplay’s ultimately show-stopping opus “Fix You” might never have seen the light of day had Chris given up and caved in when Guy politely asked of him one morning: “So, ‘tears stream down your face, and AAAAH.’ What’s that all about, then?”

“Life itself is an exile. The way home is not the way back.”

“At what age did I start to think that where I was going was more important than where I already was? When was it that I began to believe that the most important thing about what I was doing was getting it over with? Knowing how to live is not something we have to teach children. Knowing how to live is something we have to be careful not to take away from them.”

“...because if you tell a lie when you are being eaten by a nearly dead queen, you are always struck dumb.”

“Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about.”