In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there.

The effect of prizes on one's career - if that is what to call it - is considerable, since they give one more clout with publishers and more notoriety among journalists. The effect on one's writing, however, is nil - otherwise, one would be in deep trouble.

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

I shall strip away layer after layer of grime -- the toffee-colored varnish and caked soot left by a lifetime of dissembling -- until I come to the very thing itself and know it for what it is. My soul. My self.

The white May blossom swooned slowly into the open mouth of the grave.

I like ideas. I find them more exciting than human behavior for the most part.

If I was asked to say what was the greatest invention of human beings, I would say the sentence.