You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew; the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he doesn't.

People say that I am always serious and depressing, but it seems to me that the English are never serious - they are flippant, complacent, ineffable, but never serious, which is sometimes maddening.

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.

All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.

You never know if they like you for who you are or what you are. Would he love me or the money?

I'm not very popular, because they're bleak and they're mournful and all the rest of it and I get censorious reviews. But I'm only writing fiction. I'm not making munitions, so I think it's acceptable.