Politics is the enemy of the imagination.

I'm sorry to say that far worse things have happened and the literature of the Holocaust is a witness to the capacity of the novel as a form.

Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destory?

It is quite impossible these days to assume anything about people's educational level from the way they talk or dress or from their taste in music. Safest to treat everyone you meet as a distinguished intellectual.

It wasn't torpor that kept her - she was often restless to the point of irritability. She simply liked to feel that she was prevented from leaving, that she was needed.

The world should take note: not everything is getting worse.

Above all, she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment's thought, and that would take time.