I have been sadder than any man could be: for nothing in the world was made for me.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

Everything human is alien to me.

Life is a long failure of understanding ... a long, mistaken shutting of the heart.

Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.

One situation – maybe one alone – could drive me to murder: family life, togetherness.

And no book, and possibly no painting, when it is finished, is ever exactly like the first dream of it.

I have Graham Greene's telephone number, but I wouldn't dream of using it. I don't seek out writers because we all want to be alone.

How easy it was to lie when one had to lie!

For neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not.

It always gets late with you. - Is that a compliment?

Alone we can do so little

People are fragile. They die of mistakes, of overdoses, of sickness. But mostly they die of Death.

Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.

This was a big storm and he might as well enjoy it. It was ruining everything, but you might as well enjoy it

When laziness attacks a woman, it always avoids her tongue.

It is better to go stumbling, and weeping, and crawling like a worm along the way of love, than to give up and choose some other way.

Conservatism defends those coercive arrangements which a still-lingering savageness makes requisite. Radicalism endeavours to realize a state more in harmony with the character of the ideal man.

A great maxim of personal responsibility and mature achievement: "Do it yourself" is now the enthroned cliche for being occupied with nonessentials.

Everything is being transformed under the magic influence of science and technology. And every day, if we want to live with open eyes, we have a problem to study, to resolve.

After a lustre of the moon, we say We have not the need of any paradise, We have not the need of any seducing hymn.