The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.

A novel determines its own size and shape and I've never tried to stretch an idea beyond the frame and structure it seemed to require.

It occurred to me that eating is the only form of professionalism most people ever attain.

The excitement of theatre is palpable but the frustrations, and the complete absence of a definitive evening - the play as text means practically nothing in a way - , there's no particular performance that is definitive in the way a novel is a solid object you hold in your hands and here it is. You can't say that about a play. If the novel gives us a sense of throbbing consciousness, theater is pure soul, beautiful and elusive.

To be a tourist is to escape accountability. Errors and failings don't cling to you the way they do back home. You're able to drift across continents and languages, suspending the operation of sound thought. Tourism is the march of stupidity.

Technology and violence are interdependent.

You need to know things the others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.