I have always been so sure - too sure... But now I am very humble and I say like a little child: "I do not know..."

The young people think the old people are fools -- but the old people know the young people are fools.

The point is that one's got an instinct to live. One doesn't live because one's reason assents to living. People who, as we say, 'would be better dead' don't want to die! People who apparently have everything to live for just let themselves fade out of life because they haven't got the energy to fight.

"Look here," I said, "people like to collect disasters."

The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself - and such thinking, remember, is original thinking and may have valuable results.

The lure of the past came up to grab me. To see a dagger slowly appearing, with its gold glint, through the sand was romantic. The carefulness of lifting pots and objects from the soil filled me with a longing to be an archaeologist myself.

For in the long run, either through a lie, or through truth, people were bound to give themselves away.