For me, the dead remain dead. If I couldn't believe that, I don't think I could go on living.

Metaphysical speculation is about as pointless as a discussion on the meaning of one's lungs. They're for breathing.

The tragedy of loss is not that we grieve, but that we cease to grieve, and then perhaps the dead are dead at last.

The weekend break had begun with the usual resentment and had continued with half-repressed ill humour. It was, of course, his fault. He had been more ready to hurt his wife's feelings and deprive his daughter than inconvenience a pub bar full of strangers. He wished there could be one memory of his dead child which wasn't tainted with guilt and regret.

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

In youth we take egregious risks because death has no reality for us. Youth goes caparisoned in immortality. It is only in middle age that we are shadowed by the awareness of the transitoriness of life.

There are few couples as unhappy as those who are too proud to admit their unhappiness.