As long as the state permits itself to interfere in the affairs of literature, literature has the right to interfere with the affairs of state.

I'm a bad Jew, a bad Russian, a bad everything.

I had this fantasy of becoming a neurosurgeon. You know, the normal Jewish boy fantasy, but I wanted to be a neurosurgeon for some reason. So I started in this unpleasant way. I was an assistant to the coroner, opening up corpses, taking the innards out, opening skulls, taking the brains out.

There's nothing as dear as the sight of ruins.

When Thomas Mann arrived in California from Germany, they asked him about German literature. And he said, 'German literature is where I am.' It's really a bit grand, but if a German can afford it, I can afford it.

I don't want to dive into that mud slide, which is what I consider the literary process.

Every life has a file, if you will.