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

Unless you have been to boarding-school when you are very young, it is absolutely impossible to appreciate the delights of living at home.

I’ve always said to myself that if a little pocket calculator can do it why shouldn’t I?

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it

But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.

What a fortunate fellow I am, I kept telling myself. Nobody has ever had such a lovely time as this!

Some children are spoiled and it is not their fault, it is their parents.

To shipbrokers, coal was black gold.

The more risks you allow your children to make, the better they learn to look after themselves.

I’m right and you’re wrong, I’m big and you’re small, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Kindness – that simple word. To be kind – it covers everything, to my mind. If you’re kind that’s it.

Rainbow drops – suck them and you can spit in six different colours.

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.

I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. It’s not possible.

When you’re writing, it’s rather like going on a very long walk.

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

I am suspicious of both facility and speed.

Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.

Absolute trust is something hard to achieve even in a family, and it is much harder to achieve on an international level.

Absolute trust is something hard to achieve even in a family, and it is much harder to achieve on an international level.

Holy Scripture could never lie or err…its decrees are of absolute and inviolable truth.

Holy Scripture could never lie or err…its decrees are of absolute and inviolable truth.

When you have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen to you or what your career’s going to end up like and you’re just really open to anything, then you don’t really have anything to loose.

I absolutely want to have a career where you make’em laugh and make’em cry. It’s all theater.

I would give absolutely nothing for the theory of Natural Selection, if it requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent.