I don't know, now, when I first looked at Hella and found her stale, found her body uninteresting, her presence grating. It seemed to happen all at once—I suppose that only means that it had been happening for a long time.

If all you want to do is make money, the very last thing you need is imagination.

A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.

Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.

Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford and you are not that young anymore

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.

An identity is questioned only when it is menaced, as when the mighty begin to fall, or when the wretched begin to rise, or when the stranger enters the gates, never, thereafter, to be a stranger.