"One important theme is the extent to which one can ever correct an error, especially outside any frame of religious forgiveness. All of us have done something we regret - how we manage to remove that from our conscience, or whether that's even possible, interested me."

"My parents were keen for me to have the education they themselves never had. They weren't able to guide me towards particular books, but they encouraged me to read, which I did, randomly and compulsively."

"Politics is the enemy of the imagination."

"I don't believe there's any inherent darkness at the center of religion at all. I think religion actually is a morally neutral force."

"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."

"An enormous part of our mature experience cannot not be expressed in words."

"If you search and search and stop searching, then ultimately you'll find what you need. It is the experience of living."

"A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations."