To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily telegraph.

The worst fault of the working classes is telling their children they're not going to succeed, saying: There is life, but it's not for you.

What obsesses a writer starting out on a lifetime's work is the panic-stricken search for a voice of his own.

When... I told my father I wanted to be a writer, he had asked me to consider my unfortunate wife, who would have me about the house all day 'wearing a dressing gown, brewing tea and stumped for words'.

My father, to whom I owe so much, never told me the difference between right and wrong; now I think that's why I remain so greatly in his debt.

Check-ups are, in my experience, a grave mistake; all they do is allow the quack of your choice to tell you that you have some sort of complaint that you were far happier not knowing about.

I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.