“That is why I often find myself at such cross-purposes with the modern world: I have been a converted Pagan living among apostate Puritans.”

“There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven, but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have desired anything else.”

“In reality the puritans and the humanists were quite often the same people.”

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

“I have the deepest respect even for Pagan myths, still more for the myths in Holy Scripture.”

“Because, as we know, almost anything can be read into any book if you are determined enough. This will be especially impressed on anyone who has written fantastic fiction. He will find reviewers, both favourable and hostile, reading into his stories all manner of allegorical meanings which he never intended. (Some of the allegories thus imposed on my own books have been so ingenious and interesting that I often wish I had thought of them myself.)”

“Why should quiet ruminants as you and I have been born in such a ghastly age? ”