I have Graham Greene's telephone number, but I wouldn't dream of using it. I don't seek out writers because we all want to be alone.

My imagination functions much better when I don't have to speak to people.

Everything human is alien to me.

Life is a long failure of understanding ... a long, mistaken shutting of the heart.

Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.

One situation – maybe one alone – could drive me to murder: family life, togetherness.

And no book, and possibly no painting, when it is finished, is ever exactly like the first dream of it.

How easy it was to lie when one had to lie!

For neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not.

It always gets late with you. - Is that a compliment?

This is what I like, sitting at a table and watching people go by. It does something to your outlook on life. The Anglo-Saxons make a great mistake not staring at people from a sidewalk table.

Dreams become reality once the dreamer goes beyond imagining and acts them out.

The bond of love is supernatural.

I think they are a better race than humans ever were.

Everyone's life is a page in the human history irrespective of the position he or she holds or the work he or she performs.

One person in the 60s fascinated me more than anybody I had ever known. And the fascination I experienced was probably very close to a certain kind of love

If Mandela were a comedian, I bet he would never get mad at a heckler, he'd give him or her a hug.

Sin writes histories, goodness is silent. [Ger., Das Uebel macht eine Geschichte und das Gute keine.]

I was never much of a kid person. I mean, I thought they were cute to look at, but I didn't want them in my house.

Food for thought, eat my words with your mind: Emcees are grapes, and grapes are crushed to wine.

Silent as despairing love, and strong as jealousy.