“Music moves me - duh - and that is like having a window opening on a h...” — Yann Martel Quote

“Music moves me - duh - and that is like having a window opening on a heightened reality, but the effect is fleeting: When the music ends, the magic, the uplifting, vanishes and the window slams shut. Words, on the other hand, by the nature of how they work, emotions evoked by dint of carefully laid out thoughts, have a more lingering effect.”

“I can't live for more than four years outside of Canada. I'm Canadian, so ultimately that is my reference point.”

“In all big cities the style of life is the same. Same endless array of restaurants; same big museums with the usual suspects; same anonymity, which can be thrilling when you're young but which I found got tiresome.”

“I don't want to take anything that's coming in for the sake of work. I want to choose carefully, as I have done since leaving 'EastEnders.'”

“I consider what I write to be literature. I choose the words carefully.”

“A lot of newsrooms have thought very carefully about how they cover race. I don't think the same conversations have gone on regarding women.”