“Surviving is the strongest memory I have; the sense of having walked on water.”

“I was in my thirties before I learnt that I too would prefer not to see what I could no longer have”

“Shit, he said as a great, green glut of water poured up at our feet. I wonder what the ordinary people are doin today.”

“I have never been a violent man. Just a little creepy, it seems.”

“He was poor and foolish and people will always have a place in their hearts for the harmless.”

“And somehow, somewhere along the track, I went numb. I couldn’t say what it was & didn’t dare try. How do you explain the sense of being made to feel improper ? I withdrew into a watchful rectitude, anxious to please, risking nothing. I followed the outline of my life, carefully rehearsing form without conviction, like a bishop who can’t see that his faith has become an act.”

“Will you look at us by the river! The whole restless mob of us on spread blankets in the dreamy briny sunshine skylarking and chiacking about for one day, one clear, clean, sweet day in a good world in the midst of our living. Yachts run before an unfelt gust with bagnecked pelicans riding above them, the city their twitching backdrop, all blocks and points of mirror light down to the water's edge.”