Writers have to keep on writing if they want to mature, like caterpillars endlessly chewing on leaves.

I could have been a cult writer if I'd kept writing surrealistic novels. But I wanted to break into the mainstream, so I had to prove that I could write a realistic book.

Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.

I was enjoying myself writing, because I don't know what's going to happen when I take a ride around that corner. You don't know at all what you're going to find there. That can be thrilling when you read a book, especially when you're a kid and you're reading stories.

It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life.

If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.

How much do you love me?' Midori asked. 'Enough to melt all the tigers in the world to butter,' I said.