There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.

If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

We’ve got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.

Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

I’ve only wanted paper and beautiful colors. It was my dream, and it still is my dream. And books. They’re all I need, and the rest I can do without.

Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn’t much. But the things that I’m really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I’m not successful, what do I have?

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

When I write, I try to become different characters.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.

Most people have no idea what something would sound like if it wasn’t an MP3.

I really, truly believe that writing comes out of the body; of course, the mind is working as well, but it’s a double thing and that doubleness is united. I mean, you can’t separate persona from psyche; you just can’t do it.

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

What with making their way and enjoying what they have won, heroes have no time to think. But the sons of heroes – ah, they have all the necessary leisure.

Generally, a writer of force is anywhere from 20 years to 200 years ahead of his generation.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty.

I have a big following among the biogeeks of this world. Nobody ever puts them in books.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it’s so essential that when I’m involved in the actual process, my so-called ‚real life‘ becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.

Those people in New York are not gonna change me none.

Plain women know more about men than beautiful women do.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

I promise you, I will have something on the Internet that is game-changing. I can’t lose.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

Being willing to donate the taxpayers‘ money is not the same as being willing to put your own money where your mouth is.

I can make more generals, but horses cost money.

I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.

Van Gogh never made a penny in his entire lifetime. He painted because it was his soul, his excitement. It was what aligned him with his Source of being. It’s the same with me and writing.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Never regret what you don’t write.

I stayed true to my dreams and, eventually, they came true.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Nothing will work unless you do.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

Now, as a nation, we don’t promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That’s an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

There’s nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, ‚Well, okay, I’m going to do something of high artistic worth.‘

As a country, we can’t teach kids how to read and write when we got 18 years to do it. And that’s – that’s a disgrace.

Money is like manure, of very little use except it be spread.

Language is the dress of thought.

Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars – mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more?

The most successful detectives owe their success to noticing small signs. Scouts are natural detectives and never let the smallest detail escape them. These small things are called by Scouts ‚Sign.‘

We have the best government that money can buy.

It isn’t sufficient just to want – you’ve got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

Everybody has their thing they like or don’t like to see. It’s all in your head. That’s why people take their own pictures, because it’s difficult for someone else to capture what you seek.