The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.
The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives.
The world remains ever the same.
Art and literature need extreme sociality to a degree that even dolphins don't have. We are the only large mammalian species that has such intense sociality. There are some small mammals that have become eusocial - the mole rats - but that's a different thing. Humans are able to understand one another at very high levels, to cooperate in very large groups. Humans depend on one another in ways that are an absolute precondition to sharing the kinds of information that makes narrative possible.
An Englishman will fairly drink as much As will maintain two families of Dutch.
I think it's dangerous to be optimistic. Things could go terribly wrong virtually overnight
We all not only could know everything. We do. We just tell ourselves we don't to make it all bearable.
In a certain sense the Good is comfortless.
When I was a worker I busied myself with socialist or, if you like, marxist literature.
An author must be nothing if he do not love truth; a barrister must be nothing if he do.
Give Hamas 90 days to pick a lane, then react.
I have found that hollow, which even I had relied on for solid.
Squash - that's not exercise, it's flagellation.
I attempt to write a good novel. Whether it is literature or not is something that will be decided by the ages, not by me and not by a pack of critics around the globe.
A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.
Up until about 12 years ago we never, ever, wore flak jacket or helmets but now the nastiness has got worse.
The thing we fear we bring to pass.
Know how to behave at a fine restaurant, which is a telltale measure of social maturity.
I regretted making a comment about Dave Eggers. I’ve never said anything about McSweeneys except that I admire what it is, and I think it’s great that they keep people interested in literature.
To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature.