Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher.

All art at a certain level is entertainment. We go to a tragedy by Sophocles to be entertained.

Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher.

These days I must take the world in small and carefully measured doses. It is a sort of homeopathic cure I am undergoing, though I am not certain what this cure is meant to mend. Perhaps I am learning to live amongst the living again. Practising, I mean. But no, that is not it. Being here is just a way of not being anywhere.

Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.

Doing what you do well is death. Your duty is to keep trying to do things that you don't do well, in the hope of learning.

Art is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart.