The world is full of places to which I want to return

In every man there are two minds that work side by side, the one checking the other; thus emotion stands against reason, intellect corrects passion and first impressions act a little, but very little, before quick reflection.

Mind, I am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality. I am not advocating free love in this or any other case. Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness.

We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.

The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story - and then your story!

Yes, a war is inevitable. Firstly, there's you fellows who can't be trusted. And then there's the multitude who mean to have bathrooms and white enamel. Millions of them; all over the world. Not merely here. And there aren't enough bathrooms and white enamel in the world to go round.

If you're going to have a character appear in a story long enough to sell a newspaper, he'd better be real enough that you can smell his breath.