“Remember, it's the winners write the history books, and the losers get the leavings.”

“You don't write because someone sets assignments! You write because you need to write, or because you hope someone will listen or because writing will mend something broken inside you or bring something back to life.”

“I like autumn. The drama of it; the golden lion roaring through the back door of the year, shaking its mane of leaves. A dangerous time; of violent rages and deceptive calm, of fireworks in the pockets and conkers in the fist.”

“The process of writing is a little like madness, a kind of possession not altogether benign.”

“He was the cleanest-cut comic-book schoolboy hero imaginable.”

“There was a quote he could not quite remember, something about the past being an island surrounded by time. He had missed the last boat to the island.”

“I've never been very good at leaving things behind. I tried, but I have always left fragments of myself there too, like seeds awaiting their chance to grow.”