As the books grew bigger and more ambitious, the situations in question sometimes became political ones, and so it became necessary to start painting in the social background on a scale which eventually became panoramic.

You would go mad if you began to speculate about the impact your novel might have while you were still writing it.

Well, I like the rain before it falls.

I'm one of those unlucky people who had a happy childhood.

It seems to me that you would have to write a novel on a very small, intimate scale for it not to become political.

Objectivity is just male subjectivity.

But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.