I always knew one thing, that life is made bearable and possible and liveable by the relations of one human being to another, the individual love and gentleness between persons, or in any case, the unbreakable bond that grows and fastens lives together in all sorts of mysterious ways.

I get so tired of moral bookkeeping.

You are right, none of us live enough, and sometimes I think it is because we mistake hurrah and hullabaloo for experience, we get a sock in the eye and think it is a broken heart.

What we need is endless courage.

One of the marks of a gift is to have the courage of it.

Your mind outwears all sorts of things you may set your heart upon; you can enjoy it when all other things are taken away.

A novel is really like a symphony where instrument after instrument has to come in at its own time, and no other.