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.

When I'm writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences.

All over the world today, not just in the totalitarian countries, assiduous functionaries in Ministries of Truth are clubbing history dumb and rendering language insensible.

The images of things are not the things in themselves.

I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.

When you're working well, you don't do research. Whatever you need comes to you.

We make a mistake to condescend to the past as if it were preparatory to our own time.