There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag...

Dreams have always been my friend, full of information, full of warnings.

Charity has always been a expression of the guilty consciences of a ruling class.

You have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.

When old settlers say 'One has to understand the country,' what they mean is, 'You have to get used to our ideas about the native.' They are saying in effect, 'Learn our ideas, or otherwise get out; we don't want you.'

Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment.

But children can't be a center of life and a reason for being. They can be a thousand things that are delightful, interesting, satisfying, but they can't be a well-spring to live from. Or they shouldn't be.