"I don't understand my own sporadic collapses into passivity. Perhaps I never will."

"I don't believe that anything's totally invented... If you're completely inventing a story, there wouldn't be an urge to tell it."

"I think some people wished I'd kept myself out of the book. But I kind of insist on it because I want the reader to share my engagement with the material, if you like, not pretend that I'm doing it completely intellectually."

"I just... my childhood seems, when I look back, to be largely composed of reading, lying on the bed. I mean, my mother was always shouting, 'Go outside!' But she shouted it at all of us. I think I was just kind of... rather an introverted child, probably."

"The foundation of joy is the light of knowledge dispels the darkness of ignorance."

"Staying married may have long-term benefits. You can elicit much more sympathy from friends over a bad marriage than you ever can from a good divorce."

"Wisdom principle 11 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 68."

"While knowledge may provide useful point of reference, it cannot become a force to guide the future."