Every man is his own law court and punishes himself enough.

But there were too many points at which the other self could invade the self he wanted to preserve, and there were too many forms of invasion: certain words, sounds, lights, actions his hands or feet performed, and if he did nothing at all, heard and saw nothing, the shouting of some triumphant inner voice that shocked him and cowed him.

If people have bought something of mine, they know by now that I will decline writing it for the movies

I know you have it in you, Guy," Anne said suddenly at the end of a silence, "the capacity to be terribly happy.

Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.

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

He liked the fact that Venice had no cars. It made the city human. The streets were like veins, he thought, and the people were the blood, circulating everywhere.