There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag-and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.

There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.

It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important.

I didn't go to school much, so I taught myself what I knew from reading.

I've won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one. I'm delighted to win them all, the whole lot.

Some people obtain fame, others deserve it.

The most exciting periods of literature have always been those when the critics were great.