Time's arrow, we are told, is a one-way thing. . . Memory's arrow, like the needle of a compass too close to a lodestone, spins in all directions.

There must be a lot of people in the world being wondered about by people who don't see them anymore.

Language is an archaeological vehicle... the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history.

After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?

Words have a life; without response they die.

But when I don't smoke I scarcely feel as if I'm living. I don't feel as if I'm living unless I'm killing myself.

Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn't in us. It's almost as if were put here on earth to show how silly they aren't.

When you suffer an attack of nerves you're being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?.

The things that matter don't necessarily make sense.

Explorers have to be ready to die lost.

An idea is an eye given by God for the seeing of God. Some of these eyes we cannot bear to look out of; we blind them as quickly as possible.

If you don't know the person personally, then don't take it personally.

Do not let us speak of darker days let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.

Somewhere in there the grace of a ballet dancer joins with the strength of an SAS squaddie, the dignity of an ancient kind, the nerve of a bomb disposal officer.

No human beings are more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief

I'm a praying atheist. When I hear an ambulance siren, I ask for a blessing for those people in trouble, knowing that no one's listening. I think it's just a habit of mindfulness.

So he stalked her again. Love makes hunters of us all.

And I finished college because I thought how much it would upset my parents if I didnt.

I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more

So I always get in some kind of situation where next thing I know it's four a.m. and I go, uh oh, I have a photo session first thing in the morning!

I am happy in my prison of passion