Unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential.

The original is unfaithful to the translation.

The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.

What I'm really concerned about is reaching one person. And that person may be myself for all I know.

Every novel is an ideal plane inserted into the realm of reality.

Whatever one man does, it is as if all men did it. For that reason, it is not unfair that one disobedience in a garden should contaminate all humanity; for that reason it is not unjust that the crucifixion of a single Jew should be sufficient to save it.

I think of myself as being an ethical man, but I don't try to teach ethics. I have no message. I know little about contemporary life. I don't read a newspaper. I dislike politics and politicians. I belong to no party whatever. My private life is a private life. I try to avoid photography and publicity.