Rebecca West

There is in every one of us an unending see-saw between the will to live and the will to die.

I write books to find out about things.

Everyone realizes that one can believe little of what people say about each other. But it is not so widely realized that even less can one trust what people say about themselves.

God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible as infanticide.

Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.

Did St. Francis preach to the birds? Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats.