An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

The changes of this new time will not only be noticeable around us but also within us

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.

If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.

But if you're going to go out on a military unit, you've got to allow yourself to be under the control of the commander because you really could put the troops in danger.

To make an activity joyful, keep adding things until the activity as a whole becomes more appealing than repulsing.

Love opens the doors into everything, as far as I can see, including and perhaps most of all, the door into one's own secret, and often terrible and frightening, real self.

I don't trust an organization that would make policy out of fear.

Salt is white and pure - there is something holy in salt.

For when I am powerless, it is then that I am strong.

April is the cruellest month.