As a child, my mother told me lots of fairy stories, many her own invention. She, too, tended to reverse the norm.

I've been criticised for writing in too complex a manner for younger people.

Robespierre, crippled and blind, has yet to be healed to the knowledge that service - his desire - is a deed of savage-speaking gentleness, not soft-spoken savagery.

Are not all loves secretly the same? A hundred flowers sprung from a single root.

Im writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and Im very greedy, and I really enjoy it!

Hope is a punishable offense. The verdict is always death; one more death of the heart.

I hate the way, once you start to know someone, care about them, their behavior can distress you, even when it's unreasonable and not your fault, even if you were really trying to be careful, tactful.