If we reduce social life to the smallest possible unit we will find that there is no social life in the company of one.

I do not gather things, I prefer to rent them rather than to possess them.

The things I write are for those who are willing to accept a new relationship between the reader and the author.

[Nabokov's] language is made visible . . . like a veil or transparent curtain. You cannot help seeing the curtain as you peek into the intimate rooms behind.

I was pushing myself to extremes in order to discover my many selves.

There must be no worse punishment to a totalitarian nation than the withdrawal of capital.

And really the purpose of art - for me, fiction - is to alert, to indicate to stop, to say: Make certain that when you rush through you will not miss the moment which you might have had, or might still have.