I do like Italian graves; they look so much more lived in.

rudeness to Mrs. Dosely was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate - it slid and melted away.

the process of reading is reciprocal; the book is no more than a formula, to be furnished out with images out of the reader's mind.

Have not all poetic truths been already stated? The essence of a poetic truth is that no statement of it can be final.

My writing, I am prepared to think, may be a substitute for something I have been born without - a so-called normal relation to society. My books are my relation to society.

Expectations are the most perilous form of dream, and when dreams do realise themselves it is in the waking world: the difference is subtly but often painfully felt.

Solitary and farouche people don't have relationships; they are quite unrelatable.