“To expect wickedness from human beings is the best way I know of to avoid surprises. And when I am surprised, it’s always pleasantly.”

Source: I See You Everywhere

As quoted in "You Ask The Questions" in The Independent http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020912/ai_n12647620 (12 September 2002)

Ann Wilson on not being surprised by Chris Cornell's death, YouTube, November 15, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqcg8Tla1nU,

Source: Vanishing Acts

"Two Worlds," Nobel lecture (7 December 2001) http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2001/naipaul-lecture-e.html
Context: I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true. It might seem strange that a man who has dealt in words and emotions and ideas for nearly fifty years shouldn't have a few to spare, so to speak. But everything of value about me is in my books. Whatever extra there is in me at any given moment isn't fully formed. I am hardly aware of it; it awaits the next book. It will — with luck — come to me during the actual writing, and it will take me by surprise. That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing.

Variant: No, thank you, I don't mind the rain,' I said. I always lacked common sense when taken by surprise.
Source: Agnes Grey

The Last Gentleman (1966)