Only one novel is a novel: that is a successful novel.

The rules!" shouted Ralph, "you're breaking the rules!" "Who cares?

Philosophy and Religion-what are they when the wind blows and the water gets up in lumps?

He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. He talked to them, urging them, ordering them. Driven back by the tide, his footprints became bays in which they were trapped and gave him the illusion of mastery.

The Navy's a very gentlemanly business. You fire at the horizon to sink a ship and then you pull people out of the water and say, 'Frightfully sorry, old chap.'

I don't think they [contemporary writers] read me either. I mean, if we're concerned genuinely with writing, I think we probably get on with our work.

Nothing is so impenetrable as laughter in a language you don't understand.