When people say that German or any other language is romantic... all they really mean is that they've enjoyed a past in the language

The object of war is to survive it.

Our memory is a monster; you forget it - it does not.

If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life.

I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you're going to be in this business, if you're going to be an actor or a writer, you better have a thick skin.

She sat keenly white and still among them, a witness to everything--maybe determining nothing, possibly judging it all.

The gardener had a dread of small women; he'd always imagined them to have an anger disproportionate to their size.