Silence is a form of communication. Speech divides us.

I write not to record what I think but to discover what I think

All the things we achieve are things we have first of all imagined.

I might grow old in Brisbane, but I would never grow up.

We’re such contrary creatures

Words his soul danced to.

We are continuous with all the particles of our physical being, as in our breathing we are continuous with the sky. Between our bodies and the world there is unity and commerce.

What else is death but the refusal any longer to grow and suffer change?

With all those prizes the most interesting thing is getting on to the shortlist, because that tells you who people see as your peers.

Words are powerful. They too can be the agents of what is new, of what is conceivable and can be thought and let loose upon the world.

So these things happen, deep in our lives. We do not speak of them. We hide them even from ourselves, but they do not leave us.

If animal history has been a history of evolution, then the history of mankind is one of retrogression. Hooray for monsters! Monsters are the great embodiments of the weak.

Falling isn’t so bad, you know. It’s only the landing that hurts.

I am the batsman and the bat, / I am the bowler and the ball, / The umpire, the pavilion cat, / The roller, pitch, and stumps, and all.

How much do they be paying you?" he asked mellowly. "The usual salary. A little more than they think I'm worth and a little less than I think I'm worth.

And yet when you take Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, whatever, their combined killings in the name of religion -- well, that would be zero.

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.

We look, but we don't really see; we hear, but we don't really listen.

Idleness is the sepulchre of a living man.

Every individual matters and has a role to play in this life on Earth.

I've never really heard anybody imitating anything of mine the way they do with Edward Van Halen's stuff.