The Magus

by John Fowles

I went to several interviews. Since I didn’t feel obliged to show the eager enthusiasm our world expects from the young executive, I was successful at none.

Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical, and I was never accomplished at that.

‘No man is an island.’ ‘Pah. Rubbish. Every one of us is an island. If it were not so we should go mad at once. Between these islands are ships, aeroplanes, telephones, wireless—what you will. But they remain islands. Islands that can sink or disappear for ever. You are an island that has not sunk. You cannot be such a pessimist. It is not possible.’