A picture was a motionless record of motion. An arrested representation of life. A picture was the kiss of death pretending to possess immutability.

Animals have one thing that puts them way ahead of people: they don't dissemble, and you don't have to pretend in front of them.

Most people can't imagine a life that is any different from the one they are actually living. They can dream about it, they can even go into the streets and demonstrate for it, but they still can't imagine what it would be like.

Graveyards remind us of the vanity of all human endeavour.

If we lose our memory, we lose ourselves. Forgetting is one of the symptoms of death. Without memory we cease to be human beings.

Man is afraid to attain what he longs for, just as subconsciously he longs for what he is afraid of.

I realised the amazing power of literature and of the human imagination generally: to make the dead live and to stop the living from dying.