I vividly remember the stories my grandfather told me about the carnage of the First World War, which people tend to forget was one of the worst massacres in human history.

An intellectual is going to have doubts, for example, about a fundamentalist religious doctrine that admits no doubt, about an imposed political system that allows no doubt, about a perfect aesthetic that has no room for doubt.

But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.

Literature for me isn't a workaday job, but something which involves desires, dreams and fantasy.

Rather than regret for what I have written, I feel regret for what I shall never be able to read.

The salt of any interesting civilization is mixture.

No, I'm happy to go on living the life I've chosen. I'm a university teacher and I like my job.