I read, write and create. I must lose myself in work, so that there is no space for the other/anything else.

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.

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.

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?

We have laboured long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors.

While adding the finishing touches to a painting might appear insignificant, it is much harder to do than one might suppose.

In terms of asking questions, I plead guilty. I ask a hell of a lot of questions. That's my job.

Men are perfectly willing to abandon a woman but they refuse to be abandoned by her.

I'm back with my own kind of people here now, the bums and drinkers and no goods and it is a fine thing.

Democrats love to criticize Republicans on guns, but they are generally mute when it comes to taking on Hollywood or the gaming industry.

You can only learn when you teach.

I didn't go out looking for negative characters; I went out looking for people who have a struggle and a fight to tackle. That's what interests me.

If you're going to make sense of politics you have to have a historical perspective and also recognise that you have to work with people you don't agree with.

Read (this book), smile, enjoy, and if you happen to learn something along the way, don't get upset.