I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity.

Our days weave together the simple pleasures of daily life, which we should never take for granted, and the higher pleasures of Art and Thought which we may now taste as we please, with none to forbid or criticise.

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

…my Solitude is my Treasure, the best thing I have.

Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.

I have a dreadful fear that the more you try to prevent revealing the self the more you do.

I hated being a novelist when I was 20 - I had nothing to write about.