My mother died happily of a stroke in her seventies.

I'm not one of those writers that sits worrying about posthumous fame.

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.

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

You only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.

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.'

Things are not quite so simple always as black and white.