The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did - which was to hide.

It is a great shock at the age of five or six to find that in a world of Gary Coopers you are the Indian.

Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty - necessarily, since a religion ordinarily imposes on those who have discovered the true faith the spiritual duty of liberating the infidels.

But it was not the room’s disorder which was frightening; it was the fact that when one began searching for the key to this disorder, one realized that it was not to be found in any of the usual places. For this was not a matter of habit or circumstance or temperament; it was a matter of punishment and grief.

There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.

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

Secrets hidden at the heart of midnight are simply waiting to be dragged to the light, as, on some unlucky high noon, they always are. But secrets shrouded in the glare of candor are bound to defeat even the most determined and agile inspector for the light is always changing and proves that the eye cannot be trusted.