But knowledge does not protect one. Life is contemptuous of knowledge; it forces it to sit in the anterooms, to wait outside. Passion, energy, lies: these are what life admires. Still, anything can be endured if all humanity is watching. The martyrs prove it. We live in the attention of others. We turn to it as flowers to the sun.

I like to write about certain things that if they are not written about are not going to exist.

I'd say the biggest relationship is the repetition of certain themes. I don't want to say "topics," but certain points of interest.

One should not believe too strongly in a life which can easily vanish.

I'd given up everything to be a writer, and if I didn't then go on to do that - to write - then I didn't know what would happen to me.

If you write enough, you begin to learn to do things. But in a way, you do start from zero each time.

I'm a frotteur, someone who likes to rub words in his hand, to turn them around and feel them, to wonder if that really is the best word possible.