All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the base of our splendid failure to do the impossible.

The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself

We shall not kill and maybe next time we even won't.

A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune

When I was little there was a picture in one of our books, a dark place into which a single weak ray of light came slanting upon two faces lifted out of the shadow.

Then Ben wailed again, hopeless and prolonged. It was nothing. Just sound. It might have been all time and injustice and sorrow become vocal for an instant by a conjunction of planets.

'I never feel the need to discuss my work with anyone. No, I am too busy writing it. It has got to please me and if it does I don't need to talk about it. If it doesn't please me, talking about it won't improve it, since the only thing to improve it is to work on it some more. I am not a literary man but only a writer. I don't get any pleasure from talking shop.