It takes me three months of research and nine months of work to produce a book. When I start writing, I do two pages a day; if I'm gonna do 320, that's 160 days.

I write what I call 'novels of consolation' for people who are bright and sophisticated.

Whether you like it or not, Paris is the beating heart of Western civilisation. It's where it all began and ended.

One is what one has the nerve to pretend to be.

Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower - translated from a French saying

I have a very serious censorship office inside my head; it censors things that I could tell you that you would never forget, and I don't want to be the person to stick that in your brain.

The best Paris I know now is in my head.