I will say I am the sum of my books.

That element of surprise is what I look for when I am writing. It is my way of judging what I am doing - which is never an easy thing to do.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

One isn’t born one’s self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people’s ideas – and you have to work through it all.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.

It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That's where the mischief starts. That's where everything starts unravelling.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

Home is, I suppose just a child's idea. A house at night, and a lamp in the house. A place to feel safe.

One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.

The world is always in movement.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

There has never been a more important time to vote for the Green Party!

Never floss with a stranger.

If it wasn't for the military I probably would not have ever come to Bosnia for vacation.

Well, I grew up between Holland and Israel and then moved to France when I was eleven.

In spite of all our speeding it's still the style to be late.

Like tornadoes and cold sores, good work happens with total disregard to whether I'm 'into it.'

I tried to resist his overtures, but he plied me with symphonies, quartets, chamber music, and cantatas.

No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.

A throw of the dice will never abolish chance.

Don't die with your music still in you. Don't die with your purpose unfulfilled. Don't die feeling as if your life has been wrong. Don't let that happen to you.