History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.

Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.

Why is it always the "intelligent" people who are socialists?

Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.

Life is generally something that happens elsewhere.

The thing I think about is that once you've done it, you then start to think about what you're going to do next. It's much easier to follow something that's not been as successful as this.

Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.