It was a light which gave solidity to everything and drew colour out from the heart of objects.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

Everything, decided Francie after that first lecture, was vibrant with life and there was no death in chemistry. She was puzzled as to why learned people didn't adopt chemistry as a religion.

You know what it's like, " said Storm, "when you want to--just--pour a woman into a glass and--just-drink her--just drink her down, one gulp, body and soul?

Few, if any, survive their teens.

Selling out is usually more a matter of buying in. Sell out, and you’re really buying into someone else’s system of values, rules and rewards.

I've never actually given birth to a child, but I suspect that going to a Justin Bieber concert with a child is close.

She could not read a book for fear of the feelings she might find in it.

I had a very strong desire to carry out adventures, but in those early days I didn't actually do any. I just dreamt about it.

To have a purpose that is worthwhile, and that is steadily being accomplished, that is one of the secrets of life that is worth living.

All religion and all ethics are summed up in justice.

Whoever rises above those who once pleased themselves with equality, will have many malevolent gazers at his eminence.