We all of us waited for him to die. The family sent him a check every month, and hoped he'd get on with it quietly, without too much vulgar fuss.

The whole point of a sacrifice is that you give up something you never really wanted in the first place. People are doing it around you all the time. They give up their careers, say -- or their beliefs -- or sex.

Don't clap too hard - it's a very old building.

A refined sort of butcher, a woman is.

Censorship is the commonest social blasphemy because it is mostly concealed, built into us by indolence, self-interest and cowardice.

Asking a writer what he thinks about criticism is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.

Writers don't need love; all they require is money.