These were everyday sounds magnified by darkness. And darkness was nothing - it was not a substance, it was not a presence, it was no more than an absence of light.

Arguing with a dead man in a lavatory is a claustrophobic experience.

At the back of my mind I had a sense of us sitting about waiting for some terrible event, and then I would remember that it had already happened.

She returned his gaze, struck by the sense of her own transformation, and overwhelmed by the beauty which a lifetime havit had taught her to ignore.

Most of humanity gets by without reading novels or poetry, and no one would deny the richness of their thoughts.

By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State

My needs were simple I didn't bother much with themes or felicitous phrases and skipped fine descriptions of weather, landscapes and interiors. I wanted characters I could believe in, and I wanted to be made curious about what was to happen to them. Generally, I preferred people to be falling in and out of love, but I didn't mind so much if they tried their hand at something else. It was vulgar to want it, but I liked someone to say 'Marry me' by the end.