I keep telling myself I should try very hard to write a novel of about 210 pages... I don't seem to be capable of it, but I keep hoping it will happen.

Then you must say to her, 'Madame, I observe that your heart is broken. Allow me to repair it for you.

He can't really love anyone, you know, and in the end such people are always alone, no matter how much other people once loved them.

Sometimes people damage paintings or sculpture because they love it. They throw their arms around a statue in a fit of hysterical passion and it falls over.

...History it seemed could be something entirely different a splash of blood whose agony didn't fade overnight or over centuries.

No book that is written for an external purpose is going to be a passionately felt book for the writer or the reader. I don't see the point in doing that.

Bulgarians eat tarator every single day in summer. They think of it as salad although we'd call it a soup. You can make it as thick or thin as you like depending on how much water you add. It's very practical in summer because yogurt cools the body faster than water, but the water hydrates you.