The art of fiction is freedom of will for your characters.

In books, as in life, there are no second chances. On second thought: its the next work, still to be written, that offers the second chance.

literature is an instrument of a culture, not a summary of it.

Every writer aspires to recognition , and it comes entirely privately, without public fanfare, each time a piece of work is judged worthy of publication.

Death persecutes before it executes.

Language makes culture, and we make a rotten culture when we abuse words.

We were born to die; we were born to endure, on the way to death, sorrow-sorrow in manifold shapes.