People can cry much easier than they can change, a rule of psychology people like me picked up as kids on the street.

The writer's only real task: to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art

The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.

You go into a book and you're in the dark, really. You go in with a certain fear and trembling. You know one thing. You know you will not be the same person when this voyage is over. But you don't know what's going to happen to you between getting on the boat and stepping off.

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.

Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.

Whoever debases others is debasing himself.