I can't bear art that you can walk round and admire. A book should be either a bandit or a rebel or a man in the crowd.

Let me be candid, my party is full of racists

Let's go to Valhalla with the sun on our faces.

All artists are constantly looking for something and they don't always know what.

This is my genre...the happiness, tragedies, and the sorrows of mankind as realized in the teeming black ghetto.

And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God.

If you're too open-minded; your brains will fall out.

I would describe my work as expressionist. The expressionist point of view is stressing your own feelings about something.

To worship God in truth is to recognize Him for being who He is, and to recognize ourselves for what we are.

If I don't have anything to do all day, I might not even put my pants on.

We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.

The defeat of your enemy lies within the peace of your heart and the humbleness of your thoughts.

the ache became longing, longing became nostalgia, nostalgia became fondness, and after a while he could see the funny side of it. A long while.

Laws are to be enforced justly but firmly, with an iron hand. This is the case anywhere, even in a family.

At my home in the southwest of France, I grow oak, hazel, and lemon trees in my backyard.

I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with any luck, I may be proved wrong.

I don't know if sitting home everyday is normal, but that's what I do.

To speak or do anything that shall concern mankind, one must speak and act as if well, or from that grain of health which he has left.

He who knows what best to omit is the best teacher.

There is an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for.

I often write either really early in the morning, or really late at night.