I read Nietzsche when I was a teenager and then I went back to reading him when I was in my thirties, and his voice spoke directly to me. Nietzsche is such a superb literary artist.

I never went to university. I'm self-educated. I didn't go because I was too impatient, too arrogant.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.

Perhaps all of life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it.

Ian McEwan is a very good writer; the first half of Atonement alone would ensure him a lasting place in English letters.

Life is tragic but it's equally comic.

No two things the same, the equals sign a scandal.