I may not be the most likable person in the world, but I try not to upset people.

Some people think literature is high culture and that it should only have a small readership. I don't think so... I have to compete with popular culture, including TV, magazines, movies and video games.

There had to be something wrong with my life. I should have been born a Yugoslavian shepherd who looked up at the Big Dipper every night.

I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all.

Precipitate as weather, she appeared from somewhere, then evaporated, leaving only memory.

Never trust a man who carries a handkerchief, I always say. One of many prejudicial rules of thumb.

And when you come back to Japan next summer, let's have that date or whatever you want to call it. We can go to the zoo or the botanical garden or the aquarium, and then we'll have the most politically correct and scrumptious omelets we can find.