I long for, not a writer's retreat - I can write in any situation - but a reader's retreat.

No reader owes me anything - I am owed nothing for my noble efforts, because my writing was always unconditional, always coming out of inner necessity.

I did not intend to stay; I had no experience in the United States - I may have been here less than 24 hours - but I knew I would never get inside there. And 'there' not being America necessarily, but that harmonious mode of living that some people are lucky enough to have in this country.

I don't think that everyone should have a philosophical answer to any given question. There are things that need to be done.

Nobody deserves death, yet everybody gets it.

Politics imagined as direct agency, whether by voting or by participating in politics, you can think you're not political because you don't do anything between elections.

I don't believe in inspiration. I write when I can't avoid writing anymore.