Always in all my books I'm trying to reveal or help to reveal the hidden greatness of the small, of the little, of the unknown - and the pettiness of the big.

From the point of view of the economy, the sale of weapons is indistinguishable from the sale of food. When a building collapses or a plane crashes, it?s rather inconvenient from the point of view of those inside, but it?s altogether convenient for the growth of the gross national product, which sometimes ought to be called the "gross criminal product."

This work is a torture on the rump but a joy to the heart.

Writing is a marvelous adventure and very labor-intensive: those words run away and try to escape. They are very difficult to capture.

If the world is upside down the way it is now, wouldn't we have to turn it over to get it to stand up straight?

I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: 'A pretty move, for the love of God.' And when good soccer happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don't give a damn which team or country performs it.

Soccer, metaphor for war, at times turns into real war.