Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds.

To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.

I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts already catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic establishment.

You don't put your life into your books, you find it there.

Have you ever thought, headmaster, that your standards might perhaps be a little out of date? Of course they're out of date. Standards are always out of date.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

I'm not "happy" but I'm not unhappy about it.

I was an only child. I lost both my parents. By the time I was twenty I was bald. I'm homosexual. In the way of circumstances and background to transcend I had everything an artist could possibly want. It was practically a blueprint.