Writers who can't invent stories often substitute style for narrative. They remind me of the painter who couldn't paint people, so he painted chairs.

Some men are by nature explorers; my nature is to stay under the same moon and stars, and if the weather is wet, under the same roof. It's a strange world, why make it stranger?

The great thing about writing: Stay with it ... ultimately you teach yourself something very important about yourself.

You see in others who you are.

Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder.

A man is an island in the only sense that matters, not an easy way to be. We live in mystery, a cosmos of separate lonely bodies, men, insects, stars. It is all loneliness and men know it best.

Nationality isn't soul.