The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.

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

Our responsibility begins with our imagination.

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

It is my huge pleasure that my novels are translated into languages that are read among small numbers of people.

Let me tell you something, Mari. The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you. And once that happens, you've had it: things'll never be the same. All you can do is go on, living alone down there in the darkness.

My only passions were books and music. As you might guess, I led a lonely life… Not that I knew what I wanted in life - I didn’t. I loved reading novels to distraction, but didn’t write well enough to be a novelist; being an editor or a critic was out, too, since my tastes ran to the extremes. Novels should be for pure personal enjoyment, I decided, not part of your work or study. That’s why I didn’t study literature