“And it's one of the sexiest things you will ever read of how slow you should take the peach. Don't rush it.”

“I meet people who tell me things like, ‘I read your book in two days’. Please don’t do that. These things take me years to write. Slow down. Everything you read, slow down. Reading is our great act of resistance in this age of speed and carelessness.”

“Perhaps we should warn you that there is one thing you won’t read, and that is a pat answer for the problems of life.”

“Your Grandpa was a boxer in his youth. Sexiest thing I'd ever seen, let me tell you. He wore these short little shorts, and was always dripping in sweat." There goes my appetite.”

“I'm taking that away from you before you get to the India part, Magnus in a sari. Some things you don't ever forget.”

“This life is slow suicide, unless you read.”

“You should read books like you take medicine, by advice, and not by advertisement.”

“People say to write about what you know. I'm here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don't know anything. So write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.”

“Read history. That’s it. Read history. Read and read and read in both primary and secondary sources. Learn to evaluate and compare. And then… write. Writing will be the hardest thing you ever do. But it’s the goal— write about the past and how we see it.”

“If we did but know how we rush into one evil while seeking to avoid another, we should have no resolution to shun any thing.”