My father was always so mingled with rage at his life.

Time and distance from the first and second world wars doesn't seem to lessen their horrors.

I treasure solitude. One doesn't have to have human contact.

I often feel like a dinosaur. I don't get the technology thing at all. I was on the Internet not long ago for Barnes and Noble, and people were ringing up from all over the world - Australia, Canada, France. I experienced it as an informal chat, which was pleasant, but I couldn't quite take it in. It had a strong element of unreality. I can't be bothered to switch to a computer at my age, though I might get along with e-mail, which sounds appealing.

there are two kinds of humanity, those who dream and those who don't, and both tend to despise, or to tolerate, the other.

America can be a very hysterical country intellectually and very puritanical, too. You probably have fun in private, but to the rest of the world you seem to hate fun - to be big on agendas and short on spontaneity. The image you present is one of appalling conformity. The thought police is what you are ruled by.

What I had that others didn't was a capacity for sticking to it.