I never stopped reading.

The smell of manure, of sun on foliage, of evaporating water, rose to my head; two steps farther, and I could look down into the vegetable garden enclosed within its tall pale of reeds - rich chocolate earth studded emerald green, frothed with the white of cauliflowers, jeweled with the purple globes of eggplant and the scarlet wealth of tomatoes.

In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better.

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

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

I am interested only in stretching myself, on living as fully as I can.

After a certain age - and for some of us that can be very young - there are no new people, beasts, dreams, faces, events: it has all happened before.