Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.

Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils.

Green leaves on a dead tree is our epitaph-green leaves, dear reader, on a dead tree.

There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.

We may assume that we keep people waiting symbolically because we do not wish to see them and that our anxiety is due not to being late, but to having to see them at all.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.

While thoughts exist, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living.

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

We are who we are, but we know who we are through our response to the changing world.

I’m not God, and I can’t always offer chances. I’m not sure if this won’t be your last.

What is sometimes thought to be clever is, significantly often, merely an advanced form of foolishness.

I am who I am. You sort of get what you see with me.

The brain does not create consciousness, but conciousness created the brain, the most complex physical form on earth, for its expression.

Everyone asks about how I'll feel about the tattoos and scars in thirty years. I always say: "I'll like them." I've always loved damaged monuments, in architecture and in humans.

“It is not everyone,” said Elinor, “who has your passion for dead leaves.”

Thought is not a gift to man but a laborious, precarious and volatile acquisition.

Among idealists and visionaries, there is no shortage of good intent, but there's often a shortage of discipline.

Sir Alex, one of the best managers of all time. After 26 years of success in the game, we all owe him a tribute.