To divide one's life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.

My main recollection is of the work I had to do in order to eat

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.

A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.

We prefer to think that the absence of inverted commas guarantees the originality of a thought, whereas it may be merely that the utterer has forgotten its source.

Science fiction is a kind of archaeology of the future.

I found nothing really wrong with this autobiography except poor choice of subject.