My father always had doubts about the Booker prize, although they evaporated on the announcement that he had won it.

Only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb, and the rose grow without thorn.

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.

Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.

My life looked good on paper - where, in fact, almost all of it was being lived.

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.

Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.

When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.

Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside . . .

Every 10 years you're a different person, and the really great books evolve with you as you get older. They're full of new rewards.

Meantime the Newspaper of Record goes around in a little pleated skirt shaking pompoms, leaping in the air with an idiot grin if so much as a cement mixer passes by.

Sticking with a marriage. That's true grit, man.

I'm a little bit of a hippie at heart, so I always wear things that are comfortable and flowing.

I do not believe there ever was a man who was his own master, but that every man has a master of some kind or other.

I think it's important for you to understand that homosexuality is not a noun that describes a condition. It's an adjective that describes feelings or behavior.

I try and be as normal as I can, but it's all pretty mental to be honest.

With the history of us, a book wouldn't necessarily be the best thing.

Synchronistic events constitute moments in which a 'cosmic' or 'greater' meaning becomes gradually conscious in an individual; generally it is a shaking experience.

For someone who doesn't have the key, the door becomes a wall; for someone who has the key, there is no door!

The politician's prayer is: May my words be ever soft and low, for I may have to eat them.