Cervantes is the most important Spanish writer. But he is not the most representative of the Spanish. His irony, his sense of humor - they are too subtle to seem Spanish.

Nothing good ever happens by itself - it is achieved through striving, though this sometimes bears a high price.

As a writer, you live in permanent self-doubt; youre on permanent trial.

One can criticize the Israeli government, but it is not fair to judge the people of Israel.

A few British suffragettes everybody laughed at started the cause of equality between men and women.

There are two types of stories: public and private.

I have absolute respect for Israel and people in Israel who are critical of their own country.

An idea like equality between men and women, which is now accepted in the West, is quite new.

One day you will tell me how to change what I cannot yet describe without my words swelling HUGE, vowels vanishing, tears washing ink away.

If it isn't one blessing, it's another!

You can't fight light by using darkness.

Awareness requires living in the here and now, and not in the elsewhere, the past or the future.

Collage is the twentieth century's greatest innovation

The immense profundity of thought in vulgar locutions, like holes dug by generations of ants.

I love the Bee Gees, but only the pre-disco stuff. From '64 to '69, I've got all their albums.

The gods are strange. It is not our vices only they make instruments to scourge us. They bring us to ruin through what in us is good, gentle, humane, loving.

In a sense, sexuality is the built-in psychedelic experience that only a very few people manage to evade.

The biggest fool is he who has learned much, taught much, and is still discontented.