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Civilization, after all, is defined by what we forbid, more than what we permit.

Gregory David Roberts

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Gregory David Roberts
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: June 21
Author
Novelist
Prosaist
Writer
Melbourne
Australia
Forbid
Permit
Defined
Civilization

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The most precious gift you can bring to your lover is your suffering.
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I think the novel form chose me. I was a writer before I became a criminal... my first instinct was to write.
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when you judge the power that is in a person, you must judge their capacities as both friend and as enemy.
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Happiness is a myth. It was invented to make us buy new things.
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We have a saying in Marseilles: a man in no hurry gets nowhere fast. I have been in no hurry for eight years.
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When the wish and the fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare.
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What is it? she asked. I'm looking for your wings. You are my guardian angel, aren't you? I'm afraid not, she replied, her cheeks dimplingwith a wry smile. There's too much of the devil in me for that. Just how much devil, I grinned, are we talking about here?
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A politician is someone who promises a bridge even when there's no water
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Because my life has been so notorious and so bad, it can overshadow my work.
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Friendship is also a kind of medicine, and the markets for it, too, are sometimes black.
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Never let anyone know what you're thinking - always know what the other thinks of you.
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Every virtuous act has some Dark secret in its heart every risk we take contains a mystery that can’t be solved.
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Nobody who has done business in any country with an Indian would doubt the shrewdness of Indians, but what Indian people bring to the world is something special and unique, which is the capacity for a loving interaction.
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Nothing ever fits the palm so perfectly, or feels so right, or inspires so much protective instinct as the hand of a child
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In the face of all that is so wrong with the world, the very worst thing you can do is survive. And yet you must survive. It is this dilemma that makes us believe and cling to the lie that we have a soul, and that there is a God who cares about its fate.
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Friendship is an Algebra test that nobody passes.
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Ask people for help. You'll be all right. Don't worry. It's a great adventure, your life, and it has only just begun.
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There is no man, and no place, without war. The only thing we can do is choose a side, and fight. That is the only choice we get - who we fight for, who we fight against. That is life.
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None of us lie or guard our secrets when we sing, and India is a nation of singers whose first love is the kind of song we turn to when crying just isn't enough.
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