The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.

Mumbling obeisance to abhorrence of apartheid is like those lapsed believers who cross themselves when entering a church.

Sincerity is never having an idea of oneself.

It was a miracle; it was all a miracle: and one ought to have known, from the sufferings of saints, that miracles are horror.

Writing is always a voyage of discovery.

Writers themselves don't analyze what they do; to analyze would be to look down while crossing a canyon on a tightrope.

If you live in Europe . . . things change . . . but continuity never seems to break. You don't have to throw the past away.