I have been always fascinated and seduced by history, which I think is very close, very close to literature.

Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.

Prosperity or egalitarianism -- you have to choose. I favor freedom -- you never achieve real equality anyway: you simply sacrifice prosperity for an illusion.

Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life.

Life is a shitstorm, in which art is our only umbrella." (spoken by character in a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa)

The secret to a masterpiece is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

Its easy to know what you want to say, but not to say it

Writers are the exorcists of their own demons.

One can't fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.

No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.

Be who you are. If a man, be one. If woman, be so. The gender-change, behaviour or role, is a mind-made turd. As illusory as this world.

One who knows One, knows Everyone

Putting yourself first means you will never be last!

I appreciate my true fans for enjoying me in what I do every day, whether interviews or playing heel. They are smart and nice people.

The reading of a fine book is an uninterrupted dialogue in which the book speaks and our soul replies.

There is no substitute for attentive repetition.

Race is still somewhat of a taboo in comedy. But if you're a minority, then you can make fun of your own minority. And that's a nice service that many of them provide.

This afternoon held that special quality of mournful emptiness I've connected with late Sunday afternoons ever since childhood: the feeling of having nothing to do.

I've cheated myself: there are other things I could have done to fill out the bouquet of my career.

That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.