We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.

Not so much two ships passing in the night as two ships sailing together for a time but always bound for different ports.

A man who lives with nature is used to violence and is companionable with death. There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city.

Old age makes caricatures of us all.

Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell.

Unnatural death always provoked a peculiar unease, an uncomfortable realization that there were still some things that might not be susceptible to bureaucratic control.

Charm is often despised but I can never see why. No one has it who isn't capable of genuinely liking others, at least at the actual moment of meeting and speaking. Charm is always genuine; it may be superficial but it isn't false.