Neanderthal man listened to stories, if one may judge by the shape of his skull.

A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.

There's never any great risk as long as you have money.

Life is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.

Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them.

Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes.

I have said that each aspect of the novel demands a different quality of the reader. Well, the prophetic aspect demands two qualities: humility and the suspension of the sense of humour.