fear is a dreadful drawback because it stops us living in the moment.

Writers are always anxious, always on the run--from the telephone, from responsibilities, from the distractions of the world.

Recollection is not something that I can summon up, it simply comes and I am the servant of it.

I know the mistake I am making. I see the exits in life.

There was I, devouring books and yet allowing a man who had never read a book to walk me home for a bit of harmless fumbling on the front steps.

After that dark woman you search for someone who will fit into the irregular corners of your heart.

Irish? In truth I would not want to be anything else. It is a state of mind as well as an actual country. It is being at odds withother nationalities, having quite different philosophy about pleasure, about punishment, about life, and about death. At least it does not leave one pusillanimous.