I flattered myself that I was rather empathetic, that I had rather good imaginative empathy. I've realized now that that was a complete self-delusion…

- Decca Aitkenhead

I suppose if I didn't write for a living and it couldn't be published, I would have wanted to write anyway. I think there's something about the act o…

- Decca Aitkenhead

For most of my life I have known how to control my feelings. If you can control your feelings, you can pretty much control your whole world. It's ama…

- Decca Aitkenhead

I can't stand family secrets. I think they're such a toxic thing and they always leak out.

- Decca Aitkenhead

My hunch, for what it's worth, is that most of us probably find it much, much harder than we realize to really imagine what catastrophe is like. I ha…

- Decca Aitkenhead

I've discovered that, in order for life to go on, you have to believe in necessary fantasies such as what you think is going to happen next week will…

- Decca Aitkenhead

One of the rather unedifying truths about grief is it does block out more or less everything. It has a solipsistic quality to it.

- Decca Aitkenhead

Trying to defend religion by invoking science is like claiming that three plus four equals ice cream.

- Decca Aitkenhead