Did you ever have a conversation with someone who misunderstood everything you had to say? It's exhausting, and the ironic part is that the more you try and explain yourself, the more mixed up things become. Your best friend knows when you're kidding, venting, and tired. He or she knows you and therefore doesn't read into the things you say.

Where does discipline end? Where does cruelty begin? Somewhere between these, thousands of children inhabit a voiceless hell.

I believe that only poetry counts ... A great novelist is first of all a great poet.

Men resemble great deserted palaces: the owner occupies only a few rooms and has closed-off wings where he never ventures.

Every novel worthy of the name is like another planet, whether large or small, which has its own laws just as it has its own flora and fauna.

The scapegoat has always had the mysterious power of unleashing man's ferocious pleasure in torturing, corrupting, and befouling.

God does not answer our desperate questionings; he simply gives us himself.