You wish to be liked. I wish simply to be. One day you will know what that means, perhaps. And you will smile. Not against me. But with me.

Each age, each guilty age, builds high walls around its Versailles; and personally I hate those walls most when they are made by literature and art.

His statement to himself should have been, 'I possess this now, therefore I am happy', instead of what it so Victorianly was: "I cannot possess this for ever, and therefore am sad."

Liking other people is an illusion we have to cherish in ourselves if we are to live in society.

I knew words were like chains, they held me back . . . the act of description taints the description.

We chase the reward, we get the reward and then we discover that the true reward is always the next reward. Buying pleasure is a false end.

The pronoun is one of the most terrifying masks man has invented.