I need noise and interruptions and irritation: irritation and discomfort are a great starter. The loneliness of doing it any other way would kill me.

That sun, that light had faded, and she had faded with them. Now she was as grey as the season itself.

Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.

In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read. They are too busy winning the game.

Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.

I was brought up among the sort of self-important women who had a husband as one has an alibi.

Death is only a small interruption.