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

You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.

When I think about it, if I had to choose, I'd rather be happy than write.

Of course she had some pathetic illusions about herself or she would not be able to go on living.

I hadn't bargained for this. I didn't think it would be like this - shabby clothes, worn-out shoes, circles under your eyes, your hair getting straight and lanky, the way people look at you. ... I didn't think it would be like this

I sit at my window and the words fly past me like birds — with God's help I catch some.

very few people change after well say seven or seventeen. Not really. They get more this or more that and of course look a bit different. But inside they are the same.