The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read.

Usually I avoided college students, whom I considered brutal, wrapped up in themselves, particularly in their youth, in which they found material for drama or an excuse for their own boredom. I did not care for young people.

Whisky, gambling and Ferraris are better than housework.

I've tried very hard and I've never found any resemblance between the people I know and the people in my novels.

Art must take reality by surprise. It takes those moments which are for us merely a moment, plus a moment, plus another moment, and arbitrarily transforms them into a special series of moments held together by a major emotion.

All my life, I will continue obstinately to write about love, solitude and passion among the kind of people I know. The rest don't interest me.

We are torn between the craving to know and the despair of having known.