Whisky, I find, helps clarity of thought. And reduces pain. It has the additional virtue of making you drunk or, if taken in sufficient quantity, very drunk.

What is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there. This may not be mathematically possible; but it is emotionally possible.

In those days, we imagined ourselves as being kept in some kind of holding pen, waiting to be released into our lives. And when the moment came, our lives -- and time itself -- would speed up. How were we to know that our lives had in any case begun, that some advantage had already been gained, some damage already inflicted? Also, that our release would only be into a larger holding pen, whose boundaries would be at first undiscernible.

Women scheme when they are weak, they lie out of fear. Men scheme when they are strong, they lie out of arrogance.

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

Wisdom consists partly in not pretending anymore, in discarding artifice.

I'm a novelist, so I can't write about ideas unless they're attached to people.