On the whole, dialogue is the most difficult thing, without any doubt. It's very difficult, unfortunately. You have to detach yourself from the notion of a lifelike quality. You see, actually lifelike, tape-recorded dialogue like this has very little to do with good novel dialogue. It's a matter of getting that awful tyranny of mimesis out of your mind, which is difficult.

People who teach you cram old ideas, old views, old ways, into you. Like covering plants with layer after layer of old earth; it's no wonder the poor things so rarely come up fresh and green.

If you want to be true to life, start lying about it

Men love war because it allows them to look serious. Because it is the one thing that stops women laughing at them.

There are two kinds of hangover: in one you feel ill and incapable, in the other you feel ill and lucid.

The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.

We can sometimes recognize the looks of a century ago on a modern face; but never those of a century to come.