The weariness of the cell is the vigour of the organism.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.

On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.

When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, 'I am going to produce a work of art.' I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.

If you have no money, men won't care for you, women won't love you; won't, that is, care for you or love you the last little bit that matters.

He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable.

To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words.... Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence.