Pain hardens, and great pain hardens greatly, whatever the comforters say, and suffering does not ennoble, though it may occasionally lend a certain rigid dignity of manner to the suffering frame.

I'm not very interested in myself. I do have a deep moral belief that you should always look out at other things and not be self-centred.

Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.

I think the names of colors are at the edge, between where language fails and where it's at its most powerful.

A surprising number of people - including many students of literature - will tell you they haven't really lived in a book since they were children.

When I was a child - in wartime, pre-television - books were my life.

You are safe with me." "I am not at all safe, with you. But I have no desire to be elsewhere.