I find the public passion for justice quite boring and artificial.

I didn't hang around films. I don't know if I'd ever seen Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

For neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not.

In view of the fact that I surround myself with numbskulls now, I shall die among numbskulls, and on my deathbed shall be surrounded by numbskulls who will not understand what I am saying ... Whom am I sleeping with these days ? Franz Kafka.

I have Graham Greene's telephone number, but I wouldn't dream of using it. I don't seek out writers because we all want to be alone.

The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length of time it takes to write a book, the publisher and the readers can and will come later.

one blow in anger [would] kill, probably, a child from aged two to eight. Those over eight would take two blows to kill.