A writer once said to me, If you ever go to America, go either to the East Coast or the West Coast: The rest is a desert full of bigots. That's what I think I'd like . . . a version of pastoral.

Get stewed:Books are a load of crap.

The breath that sharpens life is life itself.

I think writing about unhappiness is probably the source of my popularity, if I have any - after all, most people are unhappy, don't you think?

It becomes still more difficult to find
Words at once true and kind,
Or not untrue and not unkind.

Above all, though, children are linked to adults by the simple fact that they are in process of turning into them. For this they may be forgiven much. Children are bound to be inferior to adults, or there is no incentive to grow up.

Dear, I can't write, it's all a fantasy: a kind of circling obsession.