Books are like rivers, meandering this way and that, but taking us on a steady, flowing course to somewhere different.

A thick rivulet of lost blood reflects a city that will mourn but never die.

I enjoy creating characters, telling lies, having freedom, being myself, challenging perspectives, arguing, creating something everlasting, following in hero footsteps, making readers cry or laugh and occasionally scaring the dinner out of people.

I am driven not for myself, but for others.

A black-haired bitch with man’s hands, widow Liza Van der Bruggenziltch-Finch makes all the important decisions. She is a power-hungry dominatrix. Orwell is her slave. (No one ever sees him.)

I love to pull at people’s heart strings, but I’m no Nicholas Sparks.

I want to question societal norms, encourage people to think in new ways.

Right now, in this dusty anti-paradise, I have absolutely no hand in the future at all.

Katie soon learned there was a problem with hope.

Happy endings. *Groan*

Only men with intelligence, confidence and absolutely no empathy at all can progress upstairs.

She was not alone in her respect for him. Because he is more than a boss to people. He’s a religion for non-believers.

Bea stared at the pencils as if they were enemies.

Books are readable drugs.

The beagles are partying under Geiger’s desk.

She heard him speak, but did not recognise the problem in his voice – only later did she realise it was that thing he’d been concealing – known as guilt.

It’s better to be remembered for what you said, not what you earned.

Trap yourself inside your own brain, switch off the light, block all the escape routes, then turn your back on everything you know to be reality and try and survive there. Try. Living. Nowhere.

I became a physicist to understand the world, then I became a writer to try and change it.

I’m proud to be a writer. I’m doing the job all my heroes did.

Do I need to fire the little prat yet?” Liza Van der Bruggenziltch-Finch.

Remember, it’s called ‘character development’ for a reason – it takes time, patience and understanding to build a fictional person.

A writer who’s afraid to express their opinions is not a writer – they’re just a person with a pen.

I have always hated lies; my own and everyone else’s.

Katie quickly learned the best way is to see another world entirely.

It’s late and most of the clerks are at home in their beds, dreaming of swimming in pools filled with real money.

Maxwell D. Kalist is a receiving teller at a city bank, Orwell and Finch, where he runs an efficient department of twenty two clerks and twelve junior clerks. He carries a leather-bound vade mecum everywhere...

Day after day, week after week; writing great fiction takes time, emotion, skill and effort.