Being in the pulpit, was like being in the theatre; I was behind the scenes and knew how the illusion worked.

When you're writing you're trying to find out something which you don't know.

In overlooking, denying, evading this complexity--which is nothing more than the disquieting complexity of ourselves--we are diminished and we perish; only within this web of ambiguity, paradox, this hunger, danger, darkness, can we find at once ourselves and the power that will free us from ourselves. It is this power of revelation that is the business of the novelist, this journey toward a more vast reality which must take precedence over other claims.

Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it.

The male cannot bear very much humiliation; and he really cannot bear it, it obliterates him.

Be careful what you set your heart upon - for it will surely be yours.

It is hard for anyone under twenty to realise that death has already assigned them a number, which is going to come up one day.