At my age days dissolve like salt in water; the day's gone and I don't even know what I've done with the hours.

I was such a sullen, angry, sad kid. I'm sure there are writers who have had happy childhoods, but what are you going to write about? No ghosts, no fear. I'm very happy that I had an unhappy and uncomfortable childhood.

I'm not willing to sign a contract. They want everything. They want the rights to do the movie and everything else they can think of, forever. There's no limit to the contract. In this universe and universes to be discovered - I'm not making this up - this is in the contract.

It's going to go away because we all need silence. We all need time to reflect and think. I am not at all pessimistic about this.

You spend the first part of your life collecting things ... and the second half getting rid of them.

Women have always been courageous... They are always fearless when protecting their children and in the last century they have been fearless in the fight for their rights.

The one that came really easy was the Japanese lover, because he's like a ghost in the book. He's always in the background like a spirit, like a shadow, almost. There's a very delicate line there.