The only difficulty is to know what bits to choose and what to leave out. Novel-writing is not creation, it is selection.

We each live in a private, distorted, individual world - stars turning in space, warmed for a moment by each other's light, then lost in infinite distance.

But questioning does not mean the end of loving, and loving does not mean the abnegation of intelligence

Really, trees are nearly as important as men, and much better behaved.

Everybody's tragedy is somebody's nuisance.

The greatest mercy, I have often thought, of the Mediterranean coast lies in its mosquitoes. Did we not suffer from their unwelcome attention, we could not bear our holidays to end.

it is better to take experience, to suffer, to love, and to remember than to walk unscathed between the fires. I've had most immunities myself - the result of an independent income combined with a personality completely devoid of sexual attractions - the two fires of poverty and passion have therefore never burned me, and I am a lesser person for my safety.