The story was writing itself and I was having a hard time keeping up with it.

Now a writer can make himself a nice career while he is alive by espousing a political cause, working for it, making a profession of believing in it, and if it wins he will be very well placed. All politics is a matter of working hard without reward, or with a living wage for a time, in the hope of booty later. A man can be a Fascist or a Communist and if his outfit gets in he can get to be an ambassador or have a million copies of his books printed by the Government or any of the other rewards the boys dream about.

In the spring mornings I would work early while my wife still slept. The windows were open wide and the cobbles of the street were drying after the rain.

The things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist.

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.

Never mistake motive for action.

I'm always reading books-as many as there are. I ration myself on them so that I'll always be in supply.