“The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it.”

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life.

Good writing is essentially rewriting.

All the reading she had done had given her a view of life that they had never seen.

Perhaps it’s chasing me. But I don’t think it will ever catch me because I am moving fast.

The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.

The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.

The life of a writer is absolute hell compared to the life of a businessman.

If you are good life is good.

If you are good life is good.

The walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice was dripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasted delicious.

A life is made up of a great number of small incidents, and a small number of great ones.

Obscurity is never a virtue.

I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.

The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him.

Careful those who fight with monsters, that they might become monsters themeselves.

f I were a headmaster I would get rid of the history teacher and get a chocolate teacher instead.

It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.

Don’t drink at all, don’t smoke, you must exercise and eat vegetables and fruit.

Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same.

My beer drunk soul is sadder than all the dead christmas trees of the world.

That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.

A bottle of wine was good company.

I still have a little whiskey left and therefore a chance.

I drank to drown my sorrows, but the damned things learned how to swim.