"This was the great discovery: that books could let you in to places of danger. Perhaps inevitably this included places you regretted having gone"

‘Something in the world of literature we start off reading shows us a world which while sometimes scary is nevertheless still safe’

‘Ordinarily, the public should flay this political class at the next available chance. But our options seem deeply limited’

‘Walk along any but the main streets of Vienna at any time and you cannot shift the feeling that there just aren’t enough people’