For me writing is foremost a mode of thinking and when it works well, an act of discovery

I know from the middle distance I give off the look of being prolific, which is a funny compliment to receive.

I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.

I am not merely a habitual quoter but an incorrigible one. I am, I may as well face it, more quotatious than an old stock-market ticker-tape machine, except that you can't unplug me.

Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.

I am afraid I am one of those people who continues to read in the hope of sometime discovering in a book a single—and singular—piece of wisdom so penetrating, so soul stirring, so utterly applicable to my own life as to make all the bad books I have read seem well worth the countless hours spent on them. My guess is that this wisdom, if it ever arrives, will do so in the form of a generalization.

By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.