A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime.

You are entering a phase of your life in which many different things will occur...bad things that seem good at first and good things that seem bad at first.

A gentleman is someone who does not what he wants to do, but what he should do.

Possibilities are like cancer. The more I think about them, the more they multiply, and there's no way to stop them. I'm out of control.

I go back to the reading room, where I sink down in the sofa and into the world of The Arabian Nights. Slowly, like a movie fadeout, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favourite feeling in the world.

It's my motto for life. 'Walk slowly; drink lots of water.

It might not be perfect, but the fundamental stance I adopted with regard to my home was to accept it, problems and all, because it was something I myself had chosen. If it had problems, these were almost certainly problems that had originated within me.