My children are English, and both of their mothers were English.

The only people who see the whole picture,' he murmured, 'are the ones who step out of the frame.

I have no problem with people's religious beliefs. I just don't happen to have any.

Everest silences you...when you come down, nothing seems worth saying, nothing at all. You find the nothingness wrapping you up, like a sound. Non-being. You can't keep it up, of course. the world rushes in soon enough. What shuts you up is, I think, the sight you've had of perfection: why speak if you can't manage perfect thoughts, perfect sentences? It feels like a betrayal of what you've been through. But it fades; you accept that certain compromises, closures, are required if you're to continue.

You can't judge an internal injury by the size of the hole.

Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way.

Life is lived forward but is judged in reverse.