Writers do not come out of houses without books.

What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: "You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do."

My father was in the First World War.

You simply don't get to be wise, mature, etc., unless you've been a raving cannibal for thirty years or so.

There is a great line of women stretching out behind you into the past, and you have to seek them out and find them in yourself and be conscious of them.

Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.