But then books, as I'm sure you know, seldom prompt a course of action. Books generally just confirm you in what you have, perhaps unwittingly, decided to do already. You go to a book to have your convictions corroborated. A book, as it were, closes the book.

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

One reads for pleasure...it is not a public duty.

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

I'm all in favour of free expression provided it's kept rigidly under control.

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.

At eighty things do not occur; they recur.