I believe in science but I also believe in fate.

In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lifetimes of the authors. If the authors had not achieved self-affirmation while writing, how could they have continued to write?

If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.

Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.

For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own family could turn you in.

To subvert is not the aim of literature, its value lies in discovering and revealing what is rarely known, little known, thought to be known but in fact not very well known of the truth of the human world. It would seem that truth is the unassailable and most basic quality of literature.

I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.