Top 23 Quotes & Sayings by Terry Hayes

I have nothing but praise for J. K. Rowling. Her contribution - apart from the books themselves, obviously - is showing writers how to interact with the 21st Century.

I got to know Australians well working on the 'Mad Max' franchise with director George Miller.

It doesn't take much to get a high profile in Australia.

I think I can speak with a degree of authority... today, the biggest driving force of movies is pace; God help you if you try to put in a scene that is about character and not plot.

I've read and traveled a lot in the Middle East, and I built on eyewitness accounts of horrific executions that would shape a boy's character and beliefs if he watched his father die that way. These are the stuff of which nightmares are made.

When I was 10, my father had to go to the local library to sign a release form stating that I was allowed to borrow books from the adult section.

The problem with movies is you are over-rewarded for the work you do. It's hard to give up, and I got used to a certain lifestyle.

We all have to take responsibility for what we say and do.

When I was a kid, I went through the whole process of reading great literature and trying to be very widely read.

The natural milieu I inhabit is more in epic storytelling.

I've always had a great affection for espionage stories. I like weaving them, and I like thrillers.

I used to be a journalist.

A hero can only be as good as the bad guy.

Movies are a team sport now, and I want to play singles.

Movie studios could learn a thing or two from British publishers. There is an intelligence, and a respect for writers; things that you hope for and never get in Hollywood.

On a deeper level, I think many stories - especially thrillers - can be a journey to the heart of darkness.

I went to Australia from England when I was right at that age when you learn to read. It's a very confronting thing, traveling halfway around the world and having a mother who was deeply unhappy at ending up in Australia, so you look for some way to find comfort, I guess, and I found it in books.

A child who had been introduced to misery in Saudi Arabia, a teenager who went to wage jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, a deeply devout Muslim who had graduated with honors in medicine, a man who had fed a stranger to wild dogs in Damascus, a zealot who had dosed three foreigners with smallpox and watched them die in agony, gave thanks to Allah for the blessings that had been bestowed upon him.

Some people say that compassion is the purest form of love because it neither expects nor demands anything in return.

The world doesn't change in front of your eyes, it changes behind your back.

If you want to be free, all you have to do is let go.

Computers don't lie, but liars can compute.

Nobody’s ever been arrested for a murder; they have only ever been arrested for not planning it properly.