Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post what it feels about dogs.", October 31, 1977]

That voice that cries out doesn't have to be a weakling's does it?

Jimmy: One day, when I'm no longer spending my days running a sweet-stall, I may write a book about us all. It's all here. (slapping his forehead) Written in flames a mile high. And it won't be recollected in tranquillity either, picking daffodils with Auntie Wordsworth. It'll be recollected in fire, and blood. My blood.

To be as vehement as he is is to be almost non-committal.

The school teacher is certainly underpaid as a child minder but ludicrously overpaid as an educator.