I don't think esthetic schools are important. What is important is the use that is made of them, or whatever the individual writer does.

For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It is not the result of judgement. We do not arrive at it by way of rules. We either feel beauty or we don't.

Reality may avoid the obligation to be interesting, but ... hypotheses may not.

Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned.

The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb.

The art of writing is mysterious, the opinions we hold are ephemeral.

I try to avoid purple patches, fine writing, all that kind of thing... because I think they're a mistake. And then sometimes it comes through and sometimes it doesn't, but that's not up to me. It's up to chance.