Perhaps love is essential because it's unnecessary.

A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.

The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

It is very nearly impossible to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

You become lucky when you prepare yourself for the opportunity.

I have a romantic side.

You and I might define a 'soul mate' differently. For most people, a soul mate has some kind of sexual connotation.

I thought it was very elegant, a wonderful opening. The vegans seemed so surprised-God knows what they get to eat.

When it came to football there was a certain age where I realized that my future in football was being a grease spot on the side of some bigger player.

Oh, I'm definitely a wild child.

Every man, however wise, needs the advice of some sagacious friend in the affairs of life.

To the stars through difficulties.

The personal appropriation of cliches is a condition for the spread of cultural tourism.