Happiness is impossible for longer than 15 minutes. We are the descendants of creatures who, above all else, worried.

In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.

Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice.

Never, ever become a writer. It's a nightmare.

One of the unexpectedly important things that art can do for us is to teach us how to suffer more successfully.

Mental health: having enough safe places in your mind for your thoughts to settle.

So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.