I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.

Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self.

Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens.

If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.

Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.

Loneliness is a prerequisite for freedom. Freedom depends on the ability to reflect, and reflection can only begin when one is alone.

It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.

Love is so holy, so confusing. It makes a man anxious, tormented. Love, how can I define it?

For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own family could turn you in.

A good work can be communicated across languages ... [provided one does not] fall into the trap of narrow-minded nationalistic or chauvinistic thinking.

The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who... looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space... on the infinite highway of the air.

And men, whose reason long was blind, From cells of madness unconfined, Oft lose whole years of darker mind.

There is no other love like a mother's love for her child.

Try not to have a good time... this is supposed to be educational.

To any who know the star field well from one certain reference point, stars are as individual as people. Jump ten parsecs, however, and not even your own sun is recognizable.

What people don't get is that hair is such a big part of our identity.

Foreign aid is not something the vast majority of Americans support, but definitely not conservatives.

Hobbies are for wimps who don’t have the guts to follow their passion.

One of my first jobs was at the Boston Globe. I worked in the sports department six months a year. When I was ready to graduate, the sports editor gave me a job as a schoolboy sports writer.

Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets.