America can be a very hysterical country intellectually and very puritanical, too. You probably have fun in private, but to the rest of the world you seem to hate fun - to be big on agendas and short on spontaneity. The image you present is one of appalling conformity. The thought police is what you are ruled by.

In fact I've reached the stage where I look at people and say - he or she, they are whole at all because they've chosen to block off at this stage or that. People stay sane by blocking off, by limiting themselves.

For the last third of life there remains only work. It alone is always stimulating, rejuvenating, exciting and satisfying.

Mother's room, and mother's need for privacy become a valuable lesson in respect for other people's rights.

If you read, you can learn to think for yourself.

Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment.

we have not yet developed a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination.