"We will always have Reeses and Heseltines, and they will always seem big and brave to growing boys. They swagger and make loud noises in their own l… - Louis L'Amour

So many things that are so dramatic or exciting when you read about them actually happen so simply and quietly. We humans like to consider ourselves important to creation and to the world, and we expect that whenever death comes it should be with a crash of thunder and wild shouts or something, or with soft music around and people looking grave and serious. We always have it that way in the theatre because it makes us believe in our importance. Most of our life is a matter of dressing ourselves up to believe in just that, dressing ourselves in attractive clothes, in titles, in reputations. Actually, at base we all realize that we're just a frightened bundle of animals, still afraid of the unknown, and still afraid of thousands of things that can separate us from life, and trying to shield ourselves from our own smallness.

My father had lived through wars and troubles, and it left him with a sense that nothing lasted but what a man made of himself.

Reading without thinking is nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.