One tries to tell a truth, and one hopes that the truth has a general application rather than just a specific one.

No human endeavour can ever be wholly good... it must always have a cost.

I've come across a novel called The Palm-Wine Drinkard, by the Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola, that is really remarkable because it is a kind of fantasy of West African mythology all told in West African English which, of course, is not the same as standard English.

I began to write when I was seven, and I have been writing off and on ever since. It is still off and on. You can say that when I am on, when I know I have a book which I am going to write, then I write two thousand words a day. That's so many pages longhand.

I hope my books make statements about our general condition.

The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it.

The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.