Most good thinking has its origin in fear.

We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.

According to one influential wing of modern secular society there are few more disreputable fates than to end up being 'like everyone else' for 'everyone else' is a category that comprises the mediocre and the conformist, the boring and the suburban. The goal of all right-thinking people should be to mark themselves off from the crowd and 'stand out' in whatever way their talents allow.

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

The universe is large and we are tiny, without the need for further religious superstructure. One can have so-called spiritual moments without belief in the spirit.

Distress at losing an object can be as much a frustration at the intellectual mystery of the disappearance as about the loss itself.