David

“I just took [my cancer diagnosis] as bad luck, basically. It did strike me almost immediately, my atheist sort of thing kicked in and I thought "ha, if I was a God-botherer, I'd be thinking, why me God? What have I done to deserve this?" and I thought at least I'm free of that, at least I can simply treat it as bad luck and get on with it.”
― Iain M. Banks

“Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.”
― Herman Hesse

“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“Half the fun of writing a novel is finding out from other people later on what you actually meant.”
― Iain Banks