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

Many moments in religion seem attractive to me even though I can't believe in any of it.

We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves.

A world where a majority had imbibed the lessons implicit within tragic art would be one in which the consequences of our failures would necessarily cease to weigh upon us so heavily.

I was foreign and Jewish, with a funny name, and was very small and hated sport, a real problem at an English prep school. So the way to get round it was to become the school joker, which I did quite effectively - I was always fooling around to make the people who would otherwise dump me in the loo laugh.

Much of the really serious trouble in the world gets going with a sense of humiliation.

An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting.