Time can't be measured in days the way money is measured in pesos and centavos, because all pesos are equal, while every day, perhaps every hour, is different.

I try to avoid purple patches, fine writing, all that kind of thing... because I think they're a mistake. And then sometimes it comes through and sometimes it doesn't, but that's not up to me. It's up to chance.

Reality may avoid the obligation to be interesting, but ... hypotheses may not.

A man sets himself the task of portraying the world. Shortly before he dies he discovers that this patient labyrinth of lines is a drawing of his own face.

I don't think esthetic schools are important. What is important is the use that is made of them, or whatever the individual writer does.

The word happiness exists in every language; it is plausible the thing itself exists.

The sea is an idiom I cannot decipher.