Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. "There is the blueprint," they say.

The best introduction to the psychological world of one of the most important and gifted writers of our time.

Novels as dull as dishwater, with the grease of random sentiments floating on top.

Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be.

Your first book already defines you, while you are really far from being defined. And this definition is something you may then carry with you for the rest of your life, trying to confirm it or extend or correct or deny it; but you can never eliminate it.

One reads alone, even in another's presence.

Your first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.