Family life itself, that safest, most traditional, most approved of female choices, is not a sanctuary: It is, perpetually, a dangerous place.

Scenery can be a violent stimulant.

Because if one has an image, however dim and romantic, of a journey's end, one may, in the end, surely reach it, after no matter how many detours and deceptions and abandonings of hope. And hope could never have been entirely abandoned, even in the worst days.

I've always thought that very few people grow old as admirably as academics. At least books never let them down.

If I knew what the meanings of my books were, I wouldn't have bothered to write them.

You have to be careful what you imagine, because the act of imagining is the act of encouraging yourself to be a certain kind of person.

The human mind can bear plenty of reality but not too much intermittent gloom.