A character, to be acceptable as more than a chess piece, has to be ignorant of the future, unsure about the past, and not at all sure of what he's supposed to be doing.

Any book has behind it all the other books that have been written.

I was always on my oddy knocky.

You don't say, 'I've done it!' You come, with a kind of horrible desperation, to realize that this will do.

Only in England is the perversion of language regarded as a victory for democracy.

The next morning I woke up at oh eight oh oh hours, my brothers, and as I still felt shagged and fagged and fashed and bashed and my glazzies were stuck together real horrorshow with sleepglue, I thought I would not go to school.

Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?