British Novelist Quotations

The mark of a living thing is to be involved in opposites (impossibilities): the living cell that has to be continually adapting itself to stay alive, with its identity.

It connects with the theologians' point that you can say what God is not, but not (easily) what He is.

Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well, you can do a bigger thing well too.

To say a poem is absolute is saying nothing, because an ink blot can be absolute. Yet you put into it what you like. So it becomes totally relative.

We need to be able to go to school and feel safe and accepted for who we are.

Anyone who claims to have an entirely clear conscience is almost certainly a bore.

After these three novels I gave up writing novels for a time; I was dissatisfied with romantic doom, yet didn't see much way around it.

Madam your wife and I didn't hit it off the only time I ever saw her. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me.

It always strikes me how almost unbelievably bad are the early versions of my novels.

Yes, threadbare seem his songs, to lettered ken - they were worn threadbare next the hearts of men.

There is curiously little art concerning the efficacy of reason - perhaps simply because reason is not noticeably efficacious.

All enchantments die; only cowards die with them.

Although this is a fictitious story the history is real. You don't want to re-write history but you certainly want to portray events and characters as realistically as you can.

I entirely agree with you about the obscurity of Mrs Browning's line about the stars. It is far-fetched. She wanted to express something which she found beyond expression.

I did not think much what I was writing them for, except that I knew I wanted my next novel to be in some less conventional form than straight narrative.

I don't think I've ever read an old book through from start to finish. Not after more than six months after writing it, that is.

So the books have a greater appeal to a British audience, but that hasn't stopped them making best-seller lists in places like Brazil, Japan and at least a dozen other countries.

The first time I read an excellent work, it is to me just as if I gained a new friend; and when I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting of an old one.

Not only the style, but the way in which you don't exactly know what on earth has happened or is happening till about page two hundred - then it all becomes apparent in a blinding flash.

It's difficult to gauge that. With a bad guy you just know you're bad. To play a nice guy is harder - unless you are a very nice person like me of course.

Agents will read unpublished work because they might make money, and that's their job. It isn't mine.

Now here I am playing a passionate young Irishman who would die for what he believes in.

Judy couldn't move to Britain for family reasons, so I had to come to the States, and the U.S. government wouldn't give me a Green Card, so I airily told her I'd write a book.

She was trusted and valued by her father, loved and courted by all dogs, cats, children, and poor people, and slighted and neglected by everybody else.

One book at a time... though I'm usually doing the research for others while I'm writing, but that sort of research is fairly desultory and I like to stick to the book being written - and writing a book concentrates the mind so the research is more productive.

I talked to everyone about the project: actors and extras, members of the crew and passers by.

Creative work is incredibly difficult, and that is where the tests lie.

Did they preach one thing and practice another, these men of God?

If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love friends for their sake rather than for our own.

We are hopeful that the North Koreans can show a little bit more realism, a little bit more flexibility.

What we can do is to explain as clearly as possible what the benefits would be of him going down one path, and what the potential consequences would be if he chooses another path.

So, in a sense, the verification piece is irrelevant to the format issue.

So I guess the complete lack of any new developments is what struck me. That and the fact that much of the good we had done for the artists' side of the industry with G.O.D. had been just as quickly undone by the big boys.

Mind you, even in places where I'm much better known, I walk in anonymity, mainly because folks know authors' names, but not their faces.

Of course there will be disappointments and the way will not always be as I expected it. But if it seemed easy, then that would be the time to worry that I am on the wrong path.

I work reasonably hard. Though probably not harder than many people. I work probably eight or nine hours a day, six days a week.

I do NOT think that PC gaming is over... it will always be the choice of the gaming enthusiast who is willing to put in the extra effort for a richer, more rewarding experience.

I have a terrific, marvellous, unbelievably helpful editor in London and she has the biggest influence, but even so we disagree as much as we agree.

Growing old's like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed.

He fell in love with himself at first sight, and it is a passion to which he has always remained faithful. Self-love seems so often unrequited.

KISS Psycho Circus is my current favorite. I'm not ashamed to say that I prefer the mindless fun of blasting hordes of creatures to exploration or adventure games.

I think that that multiplatform development is what's on the mind of most high-end PC developers now... this is really the first time in the industry's history that we've had console machines that can handle all that PC developers can deliver.

Parents - especially step-parents - are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fulfill the promise of their early years.

Parents are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fulfill the promise of their early years.

My wife Melissa and daughters Deaven and Halen are the things I enjoy most, but I have some great friends and partners that are like blood as well.

I still have to crack the French market, though that isn't entirely surprising considering that the Sharpe novels are endless tales of French defeat.

We have a model that we're following, and it's the Libya model.

We need to do a lot more thinking about how the regime is going to evolve, how the bad guys are going to adapt their tactics, and what measures we're going to need in order to go forward.

To think that we as a publisher (i.e. people who have never actually MADE a game) can have a realistic impact on a project that a team of experts is slaving away on full time for 2 years is a bit arrogant.

Warren Spector is amazing, and his team is as good as any in the business. Shame to see all the revenues from their game entangled with all the madness of the Dallas office.

Being a starving company isn't fun for anyone. Most that go away need to go away... but certainly not all.

Consolidation isn't new, though... it was a major factor in our rush to form the Gathering and place a stake in the ground to ensure that there is a solid path for developers who are willing to stay independent and build their own companies on their own terms.

First of all we have to recognize that despite all the problems - and in some cases failures - that this regime has been much more successful, much more resilient, than people had anticipated.

First of all, I think the situation today is different. We're in a different place than we were in '93, '94.

I start early - usually by 5 am, and work through to 5 pm, with breaks for lunch, boring exercise, etc etc. But it's usually a full day.

Sometimes we tend to focus more on the personalities and the conflicts, and it really caricatures the issues.

Seems like it's going to be really hard to make money at it, and, therefore, really hard to get any great games done. Much like Flash games, the audience is huge, but the content isn't likely to be good enough to have people pay for it.

RUNE is another one I'm really looking forward to.

Our developers will make great games for whatever high-end platforms exist.

Or perhaps they didn't share it at all, but they were happy that the United States wanted to go ahead and deal with North Korea, that was fine.

A wise parent humours the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

You play. You win. You play. You lose. You play.

I try and do 2,500 words a day, every day of the year.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group is one area the president highlighted in his speech that's extremely important and that needs to be improved.

It's up to Kim Jong Il to make that decision, and we can't make that for him.

Then the final thing is enforcement. What happens when we actually catch somebody who has violated international law, rules, and regulations?

Everyone I have spoken with so far recognises the need for the IRA to respond positively and every has said sooner is better than later and I think there is some concern if it does continue to delay much longer that the situation isn't going to remain the same.

Not sure what I'd so with a notebook other than swat flies. If I want a break I'd rather go down to Stage Harbor and talk boats.

It's better than 9 to 5 because I'm my own boss so I can take off when I want to, and the dress code is non-existent and the commute is terrific.

It's time for the IRA to go out of business.

They would rather the United States play the bad cop, and they could play the good cop - let the United States do all the heavy lifting here.

Again, I think we have much greater diplomatic weight by having all of us sit on the same side of the table wanting the same thing, and putting it to the North Koreans.

I'm from Louisiana and live in Texas now.

I had no idea until I joined the games industry and met some of the power players, particularly those running large public companies, that much of this world is run by complete clowns.

I'm not sure you can do anything quickly or easily with the North.

In the end their appeal is not necessarily the history, but the quality of the story-telling, and a good story transcends national boundaries.

I devised a stunt for getting myself sent back home. My idea was that I should all of a sudden develop an attack of acute appendicitis.

I am not interested in genres. I am interested in doing the best work I can in whatever medium.

I began to realise that the large chocolate companies actually did possess inventing rooms, and they took their inventing very seriously.

For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather, every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.

And it's not surprising that there should be disagreement - it'd be a little surprising if there was complete consensus on any foreign policy issue.

And I think they realize that the other five countries are lined up against them, because all five are opposed to North Korea having nuclear weapons.

And so there has been a lot of diplomatic movement.

And it has to do with having no inventory or stockpiles on the shelf, but items arrive as you need to build your product. What that means is that it's much more difficult to actually find stockpiles of already built weapons.

All we do is sign great teams, and stay out of the way. The rest will take care of itself.

The format's better because it gives us a much stronger hand to play when going to the North Koreans unified, with our allies and partners in the region, all of us saying the same thing: telling them their current course is unacceptable.

The discrepancy is entirely based, I think, on the fact that I write best when I'm writing about what I know, and that is British history.