I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write, and then I remember that it was always difficult, and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.

Only one marriage I regret. I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, "What will you have, sir?" And I said, "A glass of hemlock."

That every day should be a fiesta seemed to me a wonderful discovery.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafTs.

Man is not made for defeat.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.