Forgetting’s not something you do, it happens to you. Only it didn’t happen to me.

I love making, I love doing. I love being to the full, I love everything which is not sitting and watching and copying and dead at heart.

Do you know that every great thing in the history of art and every beautiful thing in life is actually what you call nasty or has been caused by feelings that you would call nasty? By passion, by love, by hatred, by truth. Do you know that?

I do not plan my fiction any more than I normally plan woodland walks; I follow the path that seems most promising at any given point, not some itinerary decided before entry.

Our present educational systems are all paramilitary. Their aim is to produce servants or soldiers who obey without question and who accepts their training as the best possible training. Those who are most successful in the state are those who have the most interest in prolonging the state as it is; they are also those who have the most say in the educational system, and in particular by ensuring that the educational product they want is the most highly rewarded.

The best wines take the longest to mature.

You come to the United States not knowing what to expect. Then all your worst prejudices are confirmed.