The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to..

Artistic accounts involve severe abbreviations of what reality will force upon us..

Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge..

Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason..

According to one influential wing of modern secular society there are few more disreputable fates than to end up being 'like everyone else' for 'ever….

We are presented with an unpleasant choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host o….

We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your….

An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting..

Alcohol-inspired fights are a reminder of the price we pay for our daily submission at the altars of prudence and order..

Arguments are like eels: however logical, they may slip from the minds weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style..

There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it..

When Proust urges us to evaluate the world properly, he repeatedly reminds us of the value of modest scenes..

He was a volatile mixture of confidence and vulnerability. He could deliver extended monologues on professional matters, then promptly stop in his tr….

One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone..

I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay rather than the novel..

It's as though either you accept [religious] doctrine and then you can have all the nice stuff, or you reject the doctrine and you're living in some ….

Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost ….

That said, deciding to avoid other people does not necessarily equate with having no desire whatsoever for company; it may simply reflect a dissatisf….

The most unbearable thing about many successful people is not - as we flatteringly think - how lazy they are, but how hard they work..

Never, ever become a writer. It's a nightmare..

Our jobs make relentless calls on a narrow band of our faculties, reducing our chances of achieving rounded personalities and leaving us to suspect (….