It’s very difficult to feel contempt for others when you see yourself in the mirror.

The speech we hear is an indication of that which we don't hear. It is a necessary avoidance, a violent, sly, and anguished or mocking smoke screen which keeps the other in its true place. When true silence falls we are left with echo but are nearer nakedness. One way of looking at speech is to say that it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.

I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept. I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights.

One is and is not in the centre of the maelstrom of it all.

The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.

I don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett. He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays.

If Milosevic is to be tried, he has to be tried by a proper court, an impartial, properly constituted court which has international respect.