BRYCE COURTENAY

I tell myself lies and soon I believe them.

I'm going to die with my mind intact. And to me that is the most exciting way you could possibly die.

If I were king of the world there wouldn't be boat people, there would only be people coming in boats. I would mix us all up so that we were all exactly one shade of each other.

My job is essentially that of an entertainer, no different to that of a musician, no different to that of an actor. I just happen to be an author.

Advertising was only meant to be a very small part of my life. I had intended that I would work extensively in journalism for about five or six years and then I'd become a writer.

My job, and that's my job, is to dress the naked truth. To make it interesting, to make it viable, to make it seem like something you understand and feel and love.

I was born illegitimately and almost immediately, as I understand it, placed in an orphanage. So my very earliest memories were in an orphanage. It was the tag end of the Great Depression when I was born. People were desperately poor.

The only thing that's authentic about what a writer writes is his work.

The only thing I can say that is wonderful about my mother is she forced me to learn three verses of the Bible every day of my life, and I've read the Bible now five times and it taught me the English language.

I am essentially an entertainer and a storyteller.

I watch people get older and lose their intellectual acuity; you lose that sharpness, that cleanness, that brain that you worked so hard on and that you were gifted with and lose the gifts that were given.

Advertising seemed almost natural to me because it was a business where you had to inform, persuade and educate. And so from being a junior copywriter to being the creative director of one of the largest advertising agencies in the country took me 4.5 years, which is, well, a fairly spectacular rise.

I guess my use-by date is just about up but if I could come back as a storyteller now, I would be jumping over the moon because wow, just think what's available.

People say I don't write books, I make Christmas presents.

What's the point in being an unpopular writer? It just doesn't make a lot of sense. For me it doesn't, anyway.

Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.

Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.

Love is energy: it can neither be created nor destroyed. It just is and always will be, giving meaning to life and direction to goodness... Love will never die.

In this world are very few things made from logic alone. It is illogical for man to be too logical. Some things we must just let stand. The mystery is more important than any possible explanation. The searcher after truth must search with humanity. Ruthless logic is the sign of a limited mind. The truth can only add to the sum of what you know, while a harmless mystery left unexplored often adds to the meaning of life. When a truth is not so important, it is better left as a mystery.

Dare your genius to walk the wildest unknown ways.

Sometimes, very occasionally, you do your best boxing with your mouth.

Always listen to yourself. It is better to be wrong than to simply follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you will grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.

Winning is a state of mind that embraces everything you do.

You've got to be quick on your feet in this world if you want to survive. Though once you know the rules, it is not too hard to play the game.

One thing is certain in life. Just when things are going well, soon afterward they are certain to go wrong. It's just the way things are meant to be.