Cormac McCarthy

"In the depths of the human heart there is a hunger for meaning that goes beyond any cruelty or indifference the world offers."

"You have to understand that people want to be lied to. The comfort of a lie is all they really want."

"The novel is a form that requires patience and demands from the reader a kind of surrender."

"Everything takes the life out of you. I don't care what it is."

"You cannot be responsible for the world that you're in. You're responsible only for your own behavior."

"Fidelity to the truth is paramount. Everything else falls from that."

"The real estate of existence belongs to those who are willing to fight for it."

"Language shapes thought. Thought shapes reality. Change the words and you change the world."

"Every moment is provisional. That's what makes it real."

"The problem with people is that they're always trying to solve their problems with thought, when really their problems come from thought."

"In the morning the sun rises and it opens up the world. In the evening it closes it again. This is the rhythm we live by."

"Kindness is the most important currency in the world, and most people are bankrupt."

"To be human is to be lost. You wander through life hoping someone will give you a map, but the map doesn't exist."

"The things that happen in the real world are beyond anyone's control, and yet we insist on trying to control them."

"Art is a kind of lie that tells the truth in a way that facts cannot."

"Death is not the worst thing. The worst thing is to live without purpose."

"You can't imagine what people are capable of. You can only know what you yourself are capable of."

"The future is something that has not happened yet. In that sense, it's entirely open."

"People are selfish. They want what they want and they don't much care what it costs others."

"Imagination is the only thing that separates us from the animals. Without it, we're just beasts."

"Progress is an illusion. We're not getting better. We're just getting different."

"The only real currency is time. Everything else can be replaced, but time cannot."

"You have to be willing to lose everything to gain anything that matters."

"Fear is the thing that keeps you alive. Fear is the thing that keeps you human."

"Love is not something you do. Love is something you are."

"The world will break you, and if you're lucky it will break you in a way that makes you whole."

"There's no such thing as security. There's only the illusion of security."

"Education is not learning facts. Education is learning how to think."

"The only way to be free is to accept that you are not free."

"Work is the only thing that distinguishes us. Without work, we're nothing."