“A good half of the art of living is resilience.”

“Art was the very antithesis of crass moralism.”

“In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.”

“If we are inclined to forget how much there is in the world besides that which we anticipate, then works of art are perhaps a little to blame, for in them we find the same process of simplification or selection at work as in the imagination.”

“A world where a majority had imbibed the lessons implicit within tragic art would be one in which the consequences of our failures would necessarily cease to weigh upon us so heavily.”

“A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.”

“The inability to live in the present lies in the fear of leaving the sheltered position of anticipation or memory, and so of admitting that this is the only life that one is ever likely (heavenly intervention aside) to live.”