What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from castle walls, but from countinghouses, not by the call of the bugle but by the click of the abacus, not by the grate and click of the broadsword but by the scrape of the pen.

"To write is to embark on a journey without a map, discovering new worlds within and without."