Time is the River on which the leaves of our thoughts are carried into oblivion.

The most exciting periods of literature have always been those when the critics were great.

Don't read a book out of its right time for you.

I'm going to make the obvious point that maybe the word neurotic means the condition of being highly conscious and developed. The essence of neurosis is conflict. But the essence of living now, fully, not blocking off to what goes on, is conflict. In fact I've reached the stage where I look at people and say - he or she, they are whole at all because they've chosen to block off at this stage or that. People stay sane by blocking off, by limiting themselves.

The critics slap labels on you and then expect you to talk inside their terms.

Novels give you the matrix of emotions, give you the flavour of a time in a way formal history cannot.

What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness.