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

Can the imagination, any more than the boy, be held prisoner ?" - from the foreword to the 1976 edition of "The Painted Bird

I look back into past history, the stored experiences or products of the imagination. I look no further forward than the evening.

Take whatever you can from others, and when there is nothing left, forget about them.

The planned sit-down reception is an artificial forum where one is presented with a limited number of persons with whom he can hold a conversation.

As I go to sleep I remember what my father said-that one can never be sure if one will awake. The way my health is now, this is becoming more and more real.

All my father saw was what he wanted to see.