Anyone who has ever sat in a train as it rushes through a dark night will know that sometimes there are long minutes when the coaches slide smoothly along without so much as a shudder.

What would have become of me if no one had wanted to read my books? And don't forget all those who have written of me.

I thought of my father and felt a deep sorrow that he should no longer be alive, and that I could not go to him and tell him that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize. I knew that no one would have been happier than he to hear this.

I had become shy of life's bustle in my solitary retreat and was apprehensive at the thought of facing the world.

I think we all feel like misfits when we open our mouth sometimes, you know?

I actually have more shoes than anyone will ever know.