John Banville

"In literature, as in life, the most important things are often left unsaid."

"The self is not a fixed thing but a story we keep revising as we live."

"Justice is a human invention, imperfect and forever incomplete."

"Time moves differently in memory than it does in the moment of living."

"Art teaches us to see the world as if for the first time, every single time."

"Patience is the virtue of those who have learned to embrace the waiting."

"The truth is rarely comforting, which is precisely why we resist it so fiercely."

"In every person lives a novelist, composing stories to make sense of chaos."

"Love is the only force that makes the unbearable bearable."

"Faith is betting everything on what you cannot see or prove."

"The greatest tragedy is not failure, but the never having tried at all."

"In silence, we find the echo of who we truly are."

"Nature is indifferent to our small dramas, which is strangely comforting."

"Education is the art of learning what you already know to be true."

"Power corrupts not because men are evil, but because power reveals what was always within them."

"Happiness is often found in the acceptance of what cannot be changed."

"The writer's job is to excavate the depths of human experience and bring them to light."

"Forgiveness is the luxury of those strong enough to bear the weight of resentment."

"Every ending contains within it the seed of a new beginning."

"Creativity is the expression of the soul's need to transcend ordinary existence."

"War teaches us that civilization is thinner than we would like to believe."

"Hope is the thing we cannot afford to lose, even when losing would be easier."

"The human heart is a mystery even to itself, forever surprising us with its depths."

"Money is frozen desire, and those who pursue it are chasing their own reflections."

"Adventure is what happens when you step beyond the comfortable boundaries of the known."

"Strength lies not in never falling, but in the grace with which we rise again."

"Fear is the greatest storyteller, more inventive than any conscious mind."

"The music of life plays on whether we are listening or not."

"Perseverance is not the absence of doubt, but the refusal to be ruled by it."

"Gratitude transforms the ordinary into something precious and unexpected."