What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of disappointing others.

The problem is if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you’ll also, by implication … believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.

A good half of the art of living is resilience.

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

Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved.

In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well.

The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".