You see, I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.

I became a virtuoso of deceit. It wasn't pleasure I was after, it was knowledge. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think and novelists to see what I could get away with.

It's possible to disagree with someone about the ethics of non-violence without wanting to kick his face in.

Masturbation is the thinking man's television.

Often I think the novels I read won't make very good movies - I better not say which I'm looking at for potential films! - but it's nice to have an excuse to just sit and read for a whole day.

There was a moment in the early '80s when I wanted to work on films and wanted to live in L.A.

I love films. If I'd known how to get into or do it from the word go, I would have done that.