I would distinguish between a visitor and a pilgrim: both will come to a place and go away again, but a visitor arrives, a pilgrim is restored. A visitor passes through a place; the place passes through the pilgrim.

Every writer aspires to recognition , and it comes entirely privately, without public fanfare, each time a piece of work is judged worthy of publication.

It isn't the instrument that influences High-Minded or Low-Minded; it's the quality of Mind itself.

Real apprenticeship is ultimately always to the self.

History ... isn't simply what has happened. It's a judgment on what has happened.

I wanted to use what I was, to be what I was born to be - not to have a 'career', but to be that straightforward obvious unmistakable animal, a writer.

To want to be what one can be is purpose in life.