It wasn't until I was 37 that I grasped the great truth that you've got to write your own books and nobody else's, and then everything followed from there.

The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.

I think they've got 250 languages in Nigeria, and so English is a sort of lingua franca between the 250 languages.

Life should serve up its feast of experience in a series of courses.

Honestly, I haven't the time to read contemporary writers. I know this is awful, but in the main it is true.

Ralph... would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player.

He doesn't mind if he dies... indeed, he would like to die; but yet he fears to fall. He would welcome a long sleep; but not at the price of falling to it.