“What an extraordinary satisfaction there is in cleaning things! (Does the satisfaction depend on ownership? I suspect so.”

Those who hope, by retiring from the world, to earn a holiday from human frailty, in themselves and others, are usually disappointed.

Let us not waste love, it is rare enough.

I think being a woman is like being Irish, Everyone says you’re important and nice, but you take second place all the time.

There is no substitute for the comfort supplied by the utterly taken-for-granted relationship.

Of course reading and thinking are important but, my God, food is important too.

I feel half faded away like some figure in the background of an old picture.

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.

I just enjoy translating, it’s like opening one’s mouth and hearing someone else’s voice emerge.

Every artist is an unhappy lover. And unhappy lovers want to tell their story.

Every man needs two women, a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph.

Emotions really exist at the bottom of the personality or at the top. in the middle they are acted. This is why all the world is a stage.

Youth is a marvelous garment.

The most essential and fundamental aspect of culture is the study of literature, since this is an education in how to picture and understand human situations.

Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port.

The absolute yearning of one human body for another particular body and its indifference to substitutes is one of life’s major mysteries.

I don’t think I can marry, I’m not fit for it, I’m not real enough. That’s the trouble. I’m a puppet that’s realised what’s wrong with itself and it’s horrible. I’m propped up somewhere all alone, watching the real people go past. I’m propped up crying in a corner.

Nothing extraordinary happens to a cricketer if you time his career – which is very short.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

Bringing out your vulnerable side and shedding your privacy in front of complete strangers is so very difficult, but when you are into the performance, the relief and release is so extraordinary that you get addicted.

I’ve had extraordinary good luck with my health, other than a broken elbow.

I’m on this extraordinary adventure, and if I have no one to talk to at the end of the night, I feel lonely.

I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end.

Embrace the feeling of being you. You are existing- and that is extraordinary.

Show me a man of average ability but extraordinary desire and I will show you a winner everytime.