There's a kinship among men who have sat by a dying fire and measured the worth of their life by it.

Language fits over experience like a straight-jacket.

How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?

He lost himself in a maze of thoughts that were rendered vague by his lack of words to express them. Frowning, he tried again.

I also know Patrick White in Australia, both personally and as a writer, and Salman Rushdie in India.

The greatest pleasure is not - say - sex or geometry. It is just understanding. And if you can get people to understand their own humanity - well, that's the job of the writer.

We just got to go on, that's all. That's what grownups would do.