Was it the case that colours dimmed as the eye grew elderly? Or was it rather that in youth your excitement about the world transferred itself onto everything you saw and made it brighter?

But life never lets you go, does it? You can't put down life the way you put down a book.

This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature.

There's nothing wrong with being a genius who can fascinate the young. Rather, there's something wrong with the young who can't be fascinated by a genius.

I’ve always thought you are what you are and you shouldn’t pretend to be anyone else. But Oliver used to correct me and explain that you are whoever it is you’re pretending to be.

Wisdom consists partly in not pretending anymore, in discarding artifice.

There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond this there is great unrest.