I know that when I think of myself as being utterly worn out, when I think that somehow I have nothing more to write, then something is happening within me. And, in due course, it bubbles up; it comes to the surface, and then I do my best to listen. But there's nothing mystical about all this. I suppose all writers do the same.

Democracy is an abuse of statistics.

When you reach my age, you realize you couldn't have done things very much better or much worse than you did them in the first place.

My undertaking is not difficult, essentially. I should only have to be immortal to carry it out.

When you come right down to it, opinions are the most superficial things about anyone

There is nothing in the world that is not mysterious, but the mystery is more evident in certain things than in others: in the sea, in the eyes of the elders, in the color yellow, and in music.

The future is as irrevocable as an inflexible yesterday.