If happiness comes at all: which is by no means prearranged; it comes by the way, while you are seeking for something else. Something outside yourself, beyond yourself: in a brief absorption of self-forgetfulness.

none of what I know is out of books. ... I prefer tactual learning. Touching, on the quick of the sore nail, of present, mobile life. To toy, to gnaw, to tear: at the living element of pain. Like at a living drumstick.

When the desire is on for one particular person, nobody else will do.

anybody who drinks seriously is poor: so poor, poor, extra poor, me.

Virtue in a man doesn't make you want to grab him.

England, where nobody ever says what they mean: and by denying feeling, kill it off stone-cold at the roots.

My bitterness is not an abstract substance, it is as solid as a Christmas cake; I can cut it in slices and hand it round and there is still plenty left, for tomorrow.