He sat by her, watching every gesture she made, as if he would paint her portrait afterward.

I held out my book. It was precious to me, as were all the things I'd written; even where I despised their inadequacy there was not one I would disown. Each tore its way from my entrails. Each had shortened my life, killed me with its own special little death.

If you run away from trouble, it always follows.' Rather my impression, too. Though that never stopped me trying.

I haven't changed. Something's happened to me, that's all.

The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.

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.

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.