Old age is an insult. Its like being smacked. — Lawrence Durrell

"Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist."

"Im trying to die correctly, but its very difficult, you know."

"That house with its remoteness and the islands going down like soft gongs all the time into the amazing blue, and I shall never,never ever forget a youth spent there, discovered by accident. It was pure gold. But then of course … youth does mean happiness, it does mean love, and thats something you cant get over."

"Its only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement, only out of bawdry that you can get tenderness."

"Its unthinkable not to love — youd have a severe nervous breakdown. Or youd have to be Philip Larkin."

"Music was invented to confirm human loneliness."