A rat is neither good nor evil. It does what a rat has to do.

Christian ethics demand that you should not take revenge. The paradox is, naturally, that Christians worship a God who is the greatest avenger of them all. Defy him and you burn in eternal hell, an act of revenge which is completely out of proportion to the crime

Love surrounds you like steam in the shower. You can't see the individual drops, but you get warm. And wet. And clean.

I write something that I believe I've made up, and it's only when a friend later points it out to me that I realise I've been writing about myself again.

I have questioned myself about the brutality in the last few novels. Actually in The Leopard, in hindsight, I feel I went a little bit too far with screaming blood. There are a couple of scenes that I regret and wish I had the chance to rewrite. Phantom has less blood.

You get spoiled as a novelist because you get to be the director and the editor, and you play all the parts, but as a screenwriter, you are a bit down the ladder.

They say that every writer, they write about himself, and I think that to a certain extent that is true. But also we are creators of fiction.