My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.

You can have a silence full of words. A lute retains, in its bowl, the notes it has played. The viol, in its strings, holds a concord. A shriveled petal can hold its scent, a prayer can rattle with curses; an empty house, when the owners have gone out, can still be loud with ghosts.

You learn nothing about men by snubbing them and crushing their pride. You must ask them what it is they can do in this world, that they alone can do.

My first career ambitions involved turning into a boy; I intended to be either a railway guard or a knight errant.

I think if the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set.

Florence and Milan had given him ideas more flexible than those of people who'd stayed at home.

When you become published and become a reviewer, piles of books come along and you are pushed by fashion and what you are commissioned to do.