Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other ­people. Nothing that happens to a writer – however happy, however tragic – is ever wasted.

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.

A picnic may well be a metaphor for life. The essentials for happiness are the right company, moderate if sanguine expectations and a reasonable standard of physical sustenance and comfort, the whole being bedeviled by the belief that there is always something better to be had if only one presses on.

Books of quotations ... afford me one of the most undemanding but satisfying forms of reading pleasure.

Wars may be fought by decent men, but they're not won by them.

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

Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.