James Carlos Blake

“The only things you can ever truly own cannot be bought with money.”

“One of the greatest of human follies is that we think we know ourselves so well, that we know how we would act under any conditions, that we would under any circumstance 'do the right thing.' Well, as many have discovered, you don't really know what you'll do in the dark till the lights go out.”

“History is a record of human nature in action.”

“Sex and violence ... are the two great engines of the world.”

“Men tend to remember the best things about the women they've loved and to forget the worst, which is why so many men make the same mistakes with women again and again. Women tend to forget the best things about the men they've loved and to remember the worst, which is why so many women become bitter about men.”

“Aspiring novelists should be taught that the old adage, “Write about what you know,” isn’t limited to what you have personally experienced. Vicarious experience is also a great part of what you know. Read a lot of history and it becomes part of your store of knowledge, part of what you’re prepared to write about. The same goes for stories and memories that other people share with you.”

“Some of us are always in the borderlands no matter where we might be on the map.”

“He would know a number of grown women in his life who did not possess even a small portion of the grace his middle sister owned at the age of fourteen.”