Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also - if this isn't too grand a word - our tragedy.

Though why should we expect age to mellow us? If it isn't life's business to reward merit, why should it be life's business to give us warm comfortable feelings towards its end? What possible evolutionary purpose could nostalgia serve?

He didn’t really like travel, of course. He liked the idea of travel, and the memory of travel, but not travel itself.

I dreamt that I woke up. It's the oldest dream of all, and I've just had it

Nature is so exact, it hurts exactly as much as it is worth, so in a way one relishes the pain. If it didn't matter, it wouldn't matter.

Most people, in my opinion, steal much of what they are. If they didn't what poor items they would be.

To look at ourselves from afar, to make the subjective suddenly objective: this gives us a psychic shock.