Children, viewed from one angle, are philosophy in motion.

We are not merely tempered and schooled by failure but compelled, in however subtle a fashion, to become something other than we were.

That is why the ideal literary diet consists of trash and classics; all that has survived, and all that has no reason to survive - books you can read without thinking, and books you have to read if you want to think at all.

We happen upon ourselves when nothing much happens to us, and we are transformed in the process...

Children, viewed from one angle, are philosophy in motion.

That's the trouble with cookbooks. Like sex education and nuclear physics, they are founded on an illusion. They bespeak order, but they end in tears.

I do have one very brutal writing ritual. If I'm working in the morning, I don't allow myself a cup of tea until I've written two paragraphs. It's harsh.