You are vain and wicked- as a genius should be.

As a child I was a great liar. Fortunately my mother liked my lies. I promised her marvelous things.

In general, I agree with Jacob Grimm and feel that we ought to permit changes and uncontrolled growth in language. Even though that also allows potentially threatening new words to develop, language needs the chance to constantly renew itself.

One of the mistakes the Germans made ... was that they were not brave enough to be afraid.

Today I know that all things are watching, that nothing goes unseen, that even wallpaper has a better memory than human beings.

What makes books - and with them writers - so dangerous that church and state, politburos and the mass media feel the need to oppose them?

What I do is sometimes - at least in Germany - met with wounding campaigns. I always face the question: should I grow myself a thick skin and ignore it, or should I let myself be wounded? I've decided to be wounded, since, if I grew a thick skin, there are other things I wouldn't feel any more.