I have always tried to write in a simple way, using down-to-earth and not abstract words.

I have always tried to write in a simple way, using down-to-earth and not abstract words.

We are all potentially characters in a novel--with the difference that characters in a novel really get to live their lives to the full.

I saw Mussolini tirelessly contemplate a parade of thousands of young men.

I'm a bit like a sponge. When I'm not writing I absorb life like water. When I write I squeeze the sponge a little - and out comes, not water but ink.

Trotsky rises to give me his hand, then sits at his desk, gently allowing his regard to light on my person.

The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world.