"Children in Australia are still named after movies and sporting events. You can tell roughly the year the swimming st…"

"Most first novels are disguised autobiographies. This autobiography is a disguised novel."

"Rilke used to say that no poet would mind going to gaol, since he would at least have time to explore the treasure ho…"

"I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment tha…"

"My mother had naturally spiced the pudding with sixpences and threepenny bits, called zacs and trays respectively. Gr…"

"I remember the shock of seeing Ray undressed. He looked as if he had a squirrel hanging there. I had an acorn."

"It often happens that we are most touched by what we are least capable of. Evanescent delicacy is not the quality in …"

"Riding the crest, I diversified, exploiting a highly marketable capacity to fart at will... By mastering this skill I…"

"The whole secret of raising a fart in class is to make it sound as if it is punctuating, or commenting upon, what the…"

"Herzen was closer to the truth when he said that every memory calls up a dozen others. The real miracle of Proust is …"