I found people were telling stories to themselves without knowing it. It seemed to me that people were living a sort of small sermon that they believed in, but at the same time it was a fairy tale. Selfish desires, along with one or two highly suspect elevated thoughts. They secretly regard themselves as works of art, valuable in themselves.

Yes, well I had all my serious illnesses in late middle age. And now I'm just stuck, I'm afraid.

It's very important to feel foreign. I was born in England, but when I'm being a writer, everyone in England is foreign to me.

Now, practically all reviewers have academic aspirations. The people from the universities are used to a captive audience, but the literary journalist has to p…

I couldn't regard myself as personally repulsive. No man can, or, if he ever comes to do so, that is the end of him.

Tell me how bad I am... it makes me feel so good. [Last line]

It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.