Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be individual.

Things pass us by. Nobody can catch them. That's the way we live our lives.

If I stayed here, something inside me would be lost forever—something I couldn't afford to lose. It was like a vague dream, a burning, unfulfilled desire. The kind of dream people have only when they're seventeen.

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I'm using my own memory, and I'm using my collective memory.

If you do anything out of the ordinary, you can be sure someone, somewhere, will get upset.

Memory is so crazy! It's like we've got these drawers crammed with tons of useless stuff. Meanwhile, all the really important things we just keep forgetting, one after the other.

I don’t know, I don’t feel right unless I’ve got the sea and mountains nearby. People are mostly a product of where they were born and raised. How you think and feel’s always linked to the lay of the land, the temperature. The prevailing winds, even.