“A poem (surely someone has said this before) is a one-night stand, a short story a love affair, and a novel a marriage.”

I look forward and see myself look back.

If we can be sufficient unto ourselves, we need fear no entangling webs.

Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty. They depart to teach us about loss.

Keeping a journal implies hope.

As long as I’m facing the right direction, it doesn’t matter the size of my steps.

People always think that history proceeds in a straight line. It doesn’t. Social attitudes don’t change in a straight line.

I do believe that in every age there are people whose consciousness transcends their own time and that these people, whether fictional or historical, are those with whom we most closely identify and those about whom we most enjoy reading.

The parity of women’s health. It’s very depressing to think that you win these rights, but then you have to win them again, and again, and again, and fight the same battles over and over.

Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.

Souls have neither Sex nor Colour.

Courage is the only Magic worth having.

Images are … a kind of emotional shorthand.

Is perception equivalent to existence?

Is a currency worth anything if no one wants it? We used to buy shoes in Italy. Remember?

It takes courage to lead a life. Any life.

It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.

War isn’t declared in the name of God; it is a human affair entirely.

The ordinary literary man, even though he be an eminent historian, is ill-fitted to be a mentor in affairs of government. For… things are for the most part very simple in books, and in practical life very complex.

A man’s dying is more the survivors’ affair than his own.

People are hurt in love affairs and never recover, more than a boxing match.

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

There is no love affair held in these hands. I am reminded of this time and again.

Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.