Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who c….

.. if you asked most people whether they believed in love or not, they’d probably say they didn’t. Yet that’s not necessarily what they truly think. ….

Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds ….

A dominant impulse on encountering beauty is to wish to hold on to it, to possess it and give it weight in one’s life. There is an urge to say, ‘I wa….

Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness?.

Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to ta….

The only people we can think of as normal are those we don't yet know very well..

We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane; but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids..

Most of us stand poised at the edge of brilliance, haunted by the knowledge of our proximity, yet still demonstrably on the wrong side of the line, o….

Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet..

To be loved by someone is to realize how much they share the same needs that lie at the heart of our own attraction to them. Albert Camus suggested t….

The best cure for one's bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person..

It is no coincidence that the Western attraction to sublime landscapes developed at precisely the moment when traditional beliefs in God began to wan….

Only by declaring a book completely finished can one start to see how much remains to be done on it..

One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass..

Love is an incurable disease. In love, there is permanent suffering. Those who love and those who are happy are not the same..

Rather than saying 'I hate mess', it might draw more compassion to say, 'mess terrifies me as a harbinger of catastrophe'..

Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off..

The universe is large and we are tiny, without the need for further religious superstructure. One can have so-called spiritual moments without belief….

There are people who say, 'Oh this guy is quite thick.' I think the reason is that, increasingly, I don't mind being simple in terms of literary expr….

Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control..