An oppressed people will always rise.

He was so excessively polite that Wallendar suspected he had endured many humiliations in his life.

Life is a flimsy branch over an abyss.

When you are around 60, there are certain things that are completely terrifying. One of them is that you have made the wrong choices in life, and now it's too late to do anything about them.

I do not understand how on earth you can become a writer without seeing the world.

It was a clear, starry night, dead calm. Whenever I see a sky like that, I wish I could write music.

The passage of time was relentless and capricious, and one would lose the battle with it in the end. The only resistance a man could offer was to make the most of time, exploit it without trying to prevent its progress.

Have I ever written anything that has really changed something? What I believe is that you can't change anything without using art. I believe that the drops wear away the stone. I try to be part of that army.

As a writer, I am an intellectual. I believe in the ideals of the Enlightenment, I believe in the written word, in dialogue and in truth. I hate lies more than anything else. Most of the time I react by writing.

The whole of China was overshadowed by the injustice of the past.

One must occasionally stand the world on
its head in order to put it on its feet.

When I picked up a book that I had read many times before, the words opened themselves up again. What I was unable to cope with was the new and the unknown; but what I had read before, perhaps on several occasions, had the same effect as ever. I read and was able to stop thinking about my illness.

Many words will be written on the wind and the sand, or end up in some obscure digital vault. But the storytelling will go on until the last human being stops listening. Then we can send the great chronicle of humanity out into the endless universe.

I am fascinated by all the new technology that creates places for us to meet in what is called cyberspace. I understand what it must have meant for the rebellions in the 19th century, especially in 1830 and 1848, when the mass circulated newspaper became so important for the spreading of information.

I realize that Facebook today is a global success with more than 600 million users worldwide. But I also understand, maybe a bit sadly, that it is not for me. Perhaps it is because I am a bit too old? Or perhaps it is because I am more interested in exploring the epic text, which I have lived with for all my life.

To be grown up is to slowly forget the things you wondered about as a child.

I admit that I have been surprised during recent times. People I thought might well flee into the shadows have proved to be strong enough to remain in constant touch, while others of whom I expected more have disappeared over the horizon.
But I don't pass judgment on anybody. People are who they are. One doesn't need to have many friends -- but one should be able to rely on those one has.

Even a short-lived visit to the bottom level of society means that one is faced with one of the most important decisions one has to make in life: what type of society do you want to help to create?

This is the question that has come to dominate my whole life.

I can still remember the miraculous feeling of writing a sentence, then more sentences, telling a story. The first thing I wrote was a one-page summary of Robinson Crusoe and I am so sorry I do not have it any more; it was at that moment I became an author.

You think you know everything about a person, but the truth often comes as a surprise.