Not being boring is quite a challenge..

It was common enough, to see so much death and want a child. Common, therefore human, and he wanted it all the more. When the wounded were screaming,….

Without a revolution of the inner life, however slow, all our big designs are worthless. The work we have to do is with ourselves if we're ever going….

There are these rare moments when musicians together touch something sweeter than they've ever found before in rehearsals or performance, beyond the ….

Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can every quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same slig….

It is not the first duty of the novelist to provide blueprints for insurrection, or uplifting tales of successful resistance for the benefit of the o….

The evasions of her little novel were exactly those of her life. Everything she did not wish to confront was also missing from her novella--and was n….

Oblivion seemed the only reasonable option..

Writers are said to have superstitions and little rituals. Readers have them too..

When he thought of her, it rather amazed him, that he had let that girl with her violin go. Now, of course, he saw that her self-effacing proposal wa….

Love doesn't grow at a steady rate, but advances in surges, bolts, wild leaps, and this was one of those..

From this new and intimate perspective, she learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew; that a person is, among all else….

Find you, love you, marry you, and live without shame..

Scientists do stand on the shoulders of giants, just as do writers. Conversely, in the arts we do make discoveries. We do refine our tools. So I am a….

I watched our friends' wary, intelligent faces droop at our tale. Their shock was a mere shadow of our own, resembling more the goodwilled imitation ….

Be wary of too much calm, particularly in your mid-fifties..

Briony began to understand the chasm that lay between an idea and its execution..

He knew these last lines by heart and mouthed them now in the darkness. My reason for life. Not living, but life. That was the touch. And she was his….

When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better….

Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it's okay to be a boy; for girls it's like promotion. But for a boy t….

Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning ….