"Patience is the virtue of an ass, who treads beneath his burden and complains not."

“The nasty little secret was that I couldn't read worth a darn. In my case, I still read very slowly to this moment.”

“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! - and listens to their testimony.”

Source : "No Name in the Street". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1972.

“I get a fine warm feeling when I'm doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much negated by the pain of getting started each day. Let's face it, writing is hell.”

Source : William Styron, James L. W. West (1985). “Conversations with William Styron”, p.9, Univ. Press of Mississippi

“Imagine a glorious full moon coming over the tops of the spruce, big and yellow, shedding a mysterious light on everything... the moonlight had colour, you could see to paint and be able to appreciate the colour of things.”

“I think that you find your own way. You have your own rules. You have your own understanding of yourself, and that's what you're going to count on. In the end, it's what feels right to you. Not what your mother told you. Not what some actress told you. Not what anybody else told you but the still, small voice.”

“I'd be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I'd been given. I'd be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.”

“North Korean defectors often find it hard to settle down. It is not easy for somebody who’s escaped a totalitarian country to live in the free world. Defectors have to rediscover who they are in a world that offers endless possibilities. Choosing where to live, what to do, even which clothes to put on in the morning is tough enough for those of us accustomed to making choices; it can be utterly paralyzing for people who’ve had decisions made for them by the state their entire lives.”

“Steve Jackson is a born storyteller. He makes you sweat. . .and turn the page.”