There are people you remember and people you dream of.

Truth is, only the useless get to the top in this country.

Normal people bring children into the world; we novelists bring books. We are condemned to put our whole lives into them, even though they hardly ever thank us for it. We are condemned to die in their pages and sometimes even to let our books be the ones who, in the end, will take our lives.

I can't die yet, doctor. Not yet. I have things to do. Afterwords I'll have a whole lifetime in which to die.

But in good time you'll see that sometimes what matters isn't what one gives but what one gives up.

It was a well-known fact that the richness of buttery foods led to the moral ruin and confusion of the intellect.

In principle I'm an atheist, although in fact I have a lot of faith