The whole business of reading English Literature in two years, to know it in any reputable sense of the word - let alone your learning to write English - is, in short, impossible.

Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

We make our discoveries through our mistakes: we watch one another's success: and where there is freedom to experiment there is hope to improve.

If your language is confused, your intellect, if not your whole character, will almost certainly correspond.

O pastoral heart of England! like a psalm Of green days telling with a quiet beat.

murder your darlings

Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things.

Any success against a false target is a false victory.

God is like a mirror. The mirror never changes but everybody who looks at it sees something different.

When I was 20, the idea of having a play on anywhere was just beyond my dreams.

Schools are not about enabling children to have a living but about children being able to have a life.

The man who has ceased to fear has ceased to care.

I don't outline at all; I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way.

Americans don't think we should be raising taxes on anybody, especially in the middle of a recession.

the force of love will change your life so fast that you will scarcely believe it!

You will die not because you're ill, but because you're alive.