The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich.

The thing about life is that it's never the way you think it's going to be.

"Every story is a story about death, but perhaps every story is also about life."

I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you—it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists.

There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.

The international system is inherently competitive, and states are constantly trying to outmaneuver each other.

The past is never dead. It's not even past.