A writer's life is so hazardous that anything he does is bad for him. Anything that happens to him is bad: failure's bad, success is bad; impoverishment is bad, money is very, very bad. Nothing good can happen... Except the act of writing.

And so the ordinary unendurable torments we all experienced were indeed exceptional in the way they were absorbed in each heart.

Facts are the images of history, just as images are the facts of fiction.

I am telling you what I know—words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them.

I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority.

Whenever citizens are seen routinely as enemies of their own government, writers are rountinely seen to be the most dangerous enemies.

We are able to walk on air, but only as long as our illusion supports us.