To feel estranged from language is to lose your own body.

Novels are fictions and therefore they tell lies, but through those lies every novelist attempts to tell the truth about the world.

There's hope for everyone. That's what makes the world go round.

Stories only happen to those who are able to tell them.

It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity, to realize that I don't know half as much as I think I do.

One should never underestimate the power of books.

If you're not ready for everything, you're not ready for anything.

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

It often happens that things are other than what they seem, and you can get yourself into trouble by jumping to conclusions.

Memory is the space in which a thing happens for a second time.

It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not.

Never start with a clear idea of storyline. Instead, commence blindly, with a vague notion of trying to include a reference to your favourite band, gift shop, or chocolate bar.

We want our marriage to be a triumph, not a tragedy.

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

The healthiest people were those who didn't spend money that they hadn't earned, to buy things that they didn't need, to impress people that they didn't like.

Real French people don't bake! At least they don't bake anything complicated, finicky, tricky or unreliable.

Government should be weak, amateurish and ridiculous. At present, it fulfills only a third of the role.

There is only one way of not hating those who do us wrong, and that is by doing them good.

Even extreme grief may ultimately vent itself in violence--but more generally takes the form of apathy

My definition of what makes a journey wholly or partially horrible is boredom.