No country is so peaceful as the one that leads into death. Life arches above one's head like a bridgespan, and below it flows the water, carries the boat, takes it further.

Cultivate your Futurism. I'll cultivate my Döblinism.

Writing is not chewing your nails and picking your teeth, but a matter of public interest.

In the course of writing one historical book or another, it has happened that I could hardly restrain myself from simply copying entire documents. Indeed, I sometimes sank down among the documents and said to myself, I can't improve on these.

The subject of the novel is reality liberated from soul. The reader in complete independence presented with a structured process:let him evaluate it, not the author. The façade of the novel cannot be other than stone or steel, flashing electrically or dark, but silent.

But the main things about a man are his eyes and his feet. He should be able to see the world and go after it.

My books, at any rate, deserved to be burned.