Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal.

I often wonder what I'd do if there weren't any books in the world.

You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don't live the only life you have, you won't live some other life, you won't live any life at all.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.

You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way... people look at reality, then you can change it.

One day, to everyone’s astonishment, someone drops a match in the powder keg and everything blows up.

If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you're not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.