“No one can become really educated without having pursued some study in which he took no interest — for it is a part of education to interest ourselves in subjects for which we have no aptitude.”

“We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat may be the preface to our successors' victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that it will triumph.”

“Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

“This is the way the world ends; not with a bang but a whimper.”

“April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

“Do I dare disturb the universe?”

“Books are the mirrors of the soul.”

“Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.”

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

“When I'm writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness.”

“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

“You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”