Life's only choosing when to die. Life's a big postponement because the choice is so difficult. It's a tremendous relief not to have to choose.

If you expect the worst from a person you can never be disappointed.

Rome's just a city like anywhere else. A vastly overrated city, I'd say. It trades on belief just as Stratford trades on Shakespeare.

Life is, of course, terrible.

Literature is all, or mostly, about sex.

It'll be your own torture," he said, serious. "I hope to God it'll torture you to madness.

To be left alone is the most precious thing one can ask of the modern world.