All sanity depends on this: that it should be a delight to feel the roughness of a carpet under smooth soles, a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are...
A hundred things to do, but only one thing to be, he said, obstinately. But perhaps I don't feel myself worthy of such a wealth of opportunity?
Novels give you the matrix of emotions, give you the flavour of a time in a way formal history cannot.
I think a lot of romanticizing has gone on with the women's movement.
I do not think that marriage is one of my talents. I've been much happier unmarried than married.
People are just cannibals unless they leave each other alone.
I stood looking down out of the window. The street seemed miles down. Suddenly I felt as if I'd flung myself out of the window. I could see myself lying on the pavement. Then I seemed to be standing b...
I am increasingly afflicted by vertigo where words mean nothing
You simply don't get to be wise, mature, etc., unless you've been a raving cannibal for thirty years or so.
I mean,’ said Marion happily, ‘it’s a continent in chains, well, isn’t it?’ (Tribune, thought Anna; or possibly the Daily Worker.) ‘And measures ought to be taken immediately to restore the Africans’...
How boring these emotions are that we're caught in and can't get free of, no matter how much we want to...
For many thousands of years people had looked at expensive heads of hair and thought of how much food and warmth they represented, so obviously it was a thought of no use at all, so why bother to have...
Women are the cowards they are because they have been semi-slaves for so long. The number of women prepared to stand up for what they really think feel experience with a man they are in love with i...
I don't think that the feminist movement has done much for the characters of women.
Men are restless, adventurous. Women are conservative - despite what current ideology says.
That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.
For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying.
[I wrote] '...letters designed to hide behind.
Women have an extraordinary ability to withdraw from the sexual relationship, to immunize themselves against it, in such a way that their men can be left feeling let down and insulted without having a...
Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort...