I think that the desire to be cruel and to hurt (with words because any other way might be dangerous to ourself) is part of human nature. Parties are battles (most parties), a conversation is a duel (often). Everybody's trying to hurt first, to get in the dig that will make him or her feel superior, feel triumph.

Quite like old times,' the room says.

It's so easy to make a person who hasn't got anything seem wrong.

I like shape very much. A novel has to have shape, and life doesn't have any.

The rumble of the life outside was like the sound of the sea which was rising gradually around her.

I am the only real truth I know.

All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. And then there are mere trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don't matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake.