[On writing biography:] If you wish to see a person you must not start by seeing through him.

Behind each biography there should always be a rich treasury of unformulated knowledge, a tapestry that has not been unrolled.

The biographer's real business - if it is not too arrogant to say so - is simply this: to bring the dead to life.

Just as, in travel, one may miss seeing the sunset because one cannot find the ticket-office or is afraid of missing the train, so in even the closest human relationships a vast amount of time and of affection is drained away in minor misunderstandings, missed opportunities, and failures in consideration or understanding.

We are being governed by the dregs of the nation - and their brutality is so capricious that no one can feel certain that he will be safe tomorrow.

I do not think that one is likely to write a good biography unless one feels some sympathy with its subject.

I believe, not theoretically, but from direct personal experience, that very few of the things that happen to us are purposeless or accidental (and this includes suffering and grief - even that of others), and that sometimes one catches a glimpse of the link between these happenings. I believe - even when I am myself blind and deaf, or even indifferent - in the existence of a mystery.