Death is loneliness in its purest form.

Each generation must get on the same old merry-go-round, only disguised in a fresh coat of paint.

I specialize in what the French call la petite histoire. I am interested in the individual thumbprint.

I love to praise what I love, and I won't for a minute believe that love is blind -- indeed, it gives clearness without sharpness, and surely that is the best light in which to look at anything.

I look upon literature as an art, and I believe that if you misuse it or abuse it, it will leave you. It is not a thing that you can nail down and use as you want. You have to let it use you, too.

Childhood is the fiery furnace in which we are melted down to essentials and that essential shaped for good.

A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it's a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself -- or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind. You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.