Lies had deserted me, and I felt as lonely as though they had been my only friends.

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

One never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one can not remember what toothpaste they use; what are their views on interior decoration, and one is stuck utterly. No, major characters emerge; minor ones may be photographed.

The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You're there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see - every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties.

Men can become twins with age. The past was their common womb; the six months of rain and the six months of sun was the period of their common gestation. They needed only a few words and a few gestures to convey their meaning. They had graduated through the same fevers, they were moved by the same love and contempt.

Who knows whether there may not be a moment in childhood when the world changes forever, like making a face when the clock strikes?

In a mad world it always seems simpler to obey.