“You can’t afford a conscience in this life, that has become a luxury for the rich and a social ball and chain for the rest of us.”

Irvine Welsh, Filth

“The mandarins regard sex very highly, oh my, yes, they certainly do. And I cannot say that I blame them… It is, after all, both a necessary and an important part of life, so why not honor it.”

Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja

“The church is our treasure, son, our own true chance.”

Virginia Hamilton, The House of Dies Drear

“But because out faith does not need the doctrine of constellations and aeons, of the primal waters and universal mothers and similar symbols, that does not mean that such doctrines are lies and deception.”

Hermann Hesse, Magister Ludi – The Glass Bead Game

“Ours isn’t the only religion in the world.”

Peter Matthiessen, At Play in the Fields of the Lord

“The mandarins have, ah, peculiar tastes in many things.”

Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja

“Even bad people, even thieves and robbers have children and love them.”

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“How easily, in the absence of children, the whole experience of life becomes abstracted, a pattern of words and daydreams.”

Peter Matthiessen, At Play in the Fields of the Lord

“It ruins a man’s concentration to have a crèche hanging over his head.”

John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos

“Even children have a sense of feminine beauty, or at least they understand instinctively whether a woman is pure or not.”

Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi – Book One: The Way of the Samurai

“Kids are a pain in the ass.”

Harold Robbins, The Piranhas

“Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

“… children individually were great, only became unbearable en masse.”

Rosemary Hall, Falling for Greece

“Like children are all people.”

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“Kids always have a soft spot for silly limericks.”

Daen-aran Saengtong, Venom

“… children always think anything old and strange is funny.”

John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

“This toy increased in volume at every opportunity and hinted that, rightly used, it would be quite a delightful thing. But directions for its use were nowhere written, and so, when the toy took the initiative in wanting to play with me, my bewilderment was inevitable. Occasionally my humiliation and impatience became so aggravated that I even thought I wanted to destroy the toy. In the end, however, there was nothing for it but to surrender on my side to the insubordinate toy, with its expression of sweet secrecy, and wait passively to see what would happen.”

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

“In childish times

it’s easier;

a child believes

just what it’s told.

But children grow

and soon begin

to see too much

that doesn’t match

the simple tales,

and not enough

of what’s behind

their parents’ words.”

Terry Anderson, Den of Lions – Memoirs of Seven Years

“The period of childhood is a stage on which time and space become entangled.”

Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask

“To be a true champion, Nicholas, one must explore the darkness, too.”

Eric Van Lustbader, The Ninja