Life isn't just addition and subtraction. There's also the accumulation, the multiplication, of loss, of failure.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

Loving humanity means as much, and as little, as loving raindrops, or loving the Milky Way. You say that you love humanity? Are you sure you aren’t treating yourself to easy self-congratulation, seeking approval, making certain you’re on the right side?

In life, every ending is just the start of another story.

Paris is certainly one of the most boastful of cities, and you could argue that it has had a lot to boast about: at various times the European centre of power, of civilisation, of the arts, and (self-advertisingly, at least) of love.

I hate the way the English have of not being serious about being serious, I really hate it.

..books look as if they contain knowledge, while e-readers look as if they contain information.