Every pain is a lesson.

I'd have to struggle to find a subject in which I can't get some kind of interested pulse started.

The human face does not always reflect the beauty that may repose in the soul.

As an arts journalist in London, working mainly for the BBC, I interviewed hundreds if not thousands of authors. From them I gleaned a great deal of passing instruction in writing and I observed one fascinating detail: no two writers approach their work - physically - in the same way.

There are some places you love with your heart, and there are some places that you love with your mind- the places that you love with both are called 'libraries'

Find your soul and you'll live. Lose your soul and you'll die.

I believe the world of the spirit is in general greatly neglected and not at all served by the practice of faith as we know it, because religion isn't individual enough.

The difference between a friend and an enemy is friendliness.

Writers have opinions - that, in part, is why they write. Therefore they have strong likes and dislikes.

Stick a lighted candle up your backside to give yourself that inner glow.

For a startling period of my life, I reported the Troubles in Ireland for the BBC. I lived in Dublin and was called out to all sorts of incidents that, if taken together, add up to a war - bombings, assassinations, riots, shootings, robberies, jailbreaks, kidnappings, and sieges.

Marriage is the gold standard of all relationships. It's the currency by which everything is valued.

Do you know what the difference is between Friendship and Love? Friendship is the photograph, Love is the oil painting.