“Be careful that what you write does not offend anybody or cause problems within the company. The safest approach is to remove all useful information”

“If you don’t care about anybody- no problem.The big problem is only when you do care.”

“The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes.”

“The fact that most states are born of violent upheaval does not, of course, mean that disorder leads to order. In writing the history of events that are still unfolding in a state that is still unformed, it is impossible to know which tendencies will prevail and at what price. The safest position is the human rights position, which measures regimes on a strictly negative scale as the sum of their crimes and their abuses: if you damn all offenders and some later mend their ways, you can always take credit for your good influence. Unfortunately, the safest position may not necessarily be the wisest, and I wondered whether there is room--even a need--for exercising political judgment in such matters.”

“New truth: The first cause cannot always be the company. It must also be manager’s deep fulfillment within the company.”

“You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.”