It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts.

Put all your rage and madness into your work and live as orderly a life as possible.

We think of women at every age: while still children, we fondle with a naïve sensuality the breasts of those grown-up girls kissing us and cuddling us in their arms; at the age of ten, we dream of love; at fifteen, love comes along; at sixty, it is still with us, and if dead men in their tombs have any thought in their heads, it is how to make their way underground to the nearby grave, lift the shroud of the dear departed women, and mingle with her in her sleep

Boredom, that silent spider, was spinning its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart.

The writer must wade into life as into the sea, but only up to the navel.

Writing this book I am like a man playing the piano with lead balls attached to his knuckles.

Adultery ... could be as banal as marriage.