But truths need to be repeated many times so that they don't, poor things, lapse into oblivion.

Without the faintest possibility of finding a job, I decided to devote myself to literature: it was about time to find out what I was worth as a writer.

People might ask me, What do you propose instead? I propose nothing. I am a mere novelist, I just write about the world as I see it. It is not my job to transform it. I cannot transform it all by myself, and I wouldn't even know how to. I limit myself to saying what I believe the world to be.

... that's how life should be, when one person loses heart, the other must have heart and courage enough for both.

When all is said and done, what is clear is that all lives end before their time.

The world had already changed before September 11. The world has been going through a process of change over the last 20 or 30 years. A civilization ends, another one begins.

I am a better novelist than a poet, playwright, or essayist.