I think Americans are wonderful film actors - the best in the world - but they are a very contemporary race and they look forward all the time.

In my defence I can only say that her past, too, like mine, like everyone's in fact, was a locked box. Occasionally we allow people a peep, but generally only at the top level. The darker streams of our memories we negotiate alone.

I never know which is worse: the sorrow when you hit the bird or the shame when you miss it.

I have derived enormous confidence from being a husband and father.

Harsh reality is always better than false hope.

It's the gloomy things that need our help, if everything in the garden is sunny, why meddle?

My parents came from different backgrounds. My father's was grander than my mother's, so my mother had... to put up with the disapproval of my father's relations.