As my mother once said to me, ‘They’re quite crazy, dear – men are. What you look for is one of them whose insanity is large enough, and calm and generous enough, to include you.

As my mother once said to me, ‘They’re quite crazy, dear – men are. What you look for is one of them whose insanity is large enough, and calm and generous enough, to include you.

My God, the corruptions of literature. It put all these notions into our heads.

A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and unseen.

Literature is not a sack race. There aren't real winners and losers in the Republic of Letters.

There's nothing to talk about to strangers anymore, if you know what I mean. Everything I want to say, I say to her.

You are a real find and you keep me satisfied, up to a point. After all, I'm a malcontent and you can't change that.