The shock, for an intelligent writer, of discovering for the first time that there are people younger than himself who think him stupid is severe.

No one can achieve Serenity until the glare of passion is past the meridian.

In the dream of approaching forty I saw myself as about to die and realized that I was no longer myself, but a creature inhabited entirely by parasites, as a caterpillar is occupied by the grubs of the ichneumon fly. Gin, whisky, sloth, fear, guilt, tobacco, had made themselves my inquilines; alcohol sloshed about within, while tendrils of melon and vine grew out of ears and nostrils; my mind was a worn gramophone record, my true self was such a ruin as to seem non-existent, and all this had happened in the last three years.

The true work of art is the one which the seventh wave of genius throws up the beach where the undertow of time cannot drag it back.

It is a mistake to expect good work from expatriates for it is not what they do that matters but what they are not doing.

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

From now on - specialize; never again make any concession to the ninety-nine percent of you which is like everyon else at the expense of the one percent which is unique.