I don't fear death. I'm not obsessed with it the way everybody else seems to be.

I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.

What is the ultimate impulse to write? Because all this is going to vanish.

In the war time many of the publishing houses were privately owned, a single publisher or a publisher and a few associates who were responsible for everything. They could take whatever risks they wanted, could essentially publish what they liked according to their taste. Publishers today are working for big corporations. They have different pressures. I don't think they can make decisions quite as independently as they used to be able to. They have more corporate and financial responsibilities weighing on them. They're not free to go broke or go to jail.

Certain things I remember exactly as they were. They are merely discolored a bit by time, like coins in the pocket of a forgotten suit. Most of the details, though, have long since been transformed or rearranged to bring others of them forward. Some, in fact, are obviously counterfeit; they are no less important. One alters the past to form the future.

Dresscodes are for styleless people.

Now they are lovers. The first, wild courses are ended. They have founded their domain. A satanic happiness follows.