The difference between a scientist and a fanatic is that the scientist discards his theory if the evidence doesn’t confirm it. The fanatic twists the evidence to fit the theory.

Any writer who waits for inspiration to strike will never finish a book. Inspiration is all very well but it will never replace sheer dogged determination.

Bruce ate a mouthful of eggs and meditated. 'I wonder how many of the great heroes of history would turn out to be a slow runner, if you ever investigated the circumstances.

Probe deeply enough, under the slickest façade of confidence, and you tapped a vein of self-doubt or a hidden fear. Irrational fears and baseless doubts, many of them, but that was precisely why constant reassurance was necessary to the human animal.

She loved the smell of books, the feel of books, the look of them on the shelf.