I think I am at the end of a certain phase of my life. What I'm on the lookout for now is the unexpected, for things that come from outside and that I never thought might happen. Sometimes you have to watch for them so you don't automatically say no to the new, simply because you're in the habit of saying no to everything that comes along. I'm constantly changing my perspective on my own life. I see the past differently, and that's a wonderful thing.

I don't think in terms of optimism and pessimism when writing a story. I am telling a story.

What I had that others didn't was a capacity for sticking to it.

It was all wrong, ugly, unhappy and coloured with cynicism, but nothing was tragic, there were no moments that could change anything or anybody. From time to time the emotional lightning flashed and showed a landscape of private misery, and then — we went on dancing.

There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.

What is a hero without love for mankind.

When there's a war, people get married.