Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity.

For me, literature is a complex game, both mental and concrete, which is acted out in a physical manner on the page.

Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity.

Writers rush in where publishers fear to tread and where translators fear to tread

There were influences in my life that were more important than journalism, such as comic strips and radio.

It means that no matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down.

I think that like all writers - and if any writer disagrees with this, then he is not a writer - I write primarily for myself