There is room in history for all of us.

Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age.

The telling of a story, like virtually everything in this life, was always made all the easier by a cup of tea.

When we love others, we naturally want to talk about them, we want to show them off, like emotional trophies. We invest them with a power to do to others what they do to us; a vain hope, as the lovers of others are rarely of much interest to us. But we listen in patience, as friends must, and as Isabel now did, refraining from comment, other than to encourage the release of the story and the attendant confession of human frailty and hope.

I'm very interested in tea. I wouldn't mind being involved in some aspect of the tea industry.

It is the search for beauty...That is what it is. We find ourselves on this earth--gods and men--and we know that it is beautiful. That is one of the few things we understand--beauty; because it is there, in the world, and we can see it all about us. We want beauty. It requires our love. It just does.

Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.