Because of the influence of the cinema, most reports or stories of violence are so pictorial that they lack content or meaning. The camera brings the… - V. S. Pritchett

In her businesslike way she thought that her life had begun when she was a very young woman and she really did look lovely: you knew it wouldn't last and you packed all you could into it — but men were different. A man like B — like Alfie, too — never got beyond the time when they were boys and, damn them, it kept them young.

Now, practically all reviewers have academic aspirations. The people from the universities are used to a captive audience, but the literary journalist has to please his audience.

It's very important to feel foreign. I was born in England, but when I'm being a writer, everyone in England is foreign to me.