Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.

... Once I start a book I finish it. That was the way one was brought up. Books, bread and butter, mashed potato - one finishes what's on one's plate. That's always been my philosophy.

It's subjunctive history. You know, the subjunctive? The mood used when something may or may not have happened. When it is imagined.

Have you ever thought, headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date? Of course they're out of date. Standards are always out of date. That is what makes them standards.

Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?

Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.

All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left. I thought I'd got somewhere, then I found I had to go on.