I think I've only spent about ten percent of my energies on writing. The other ninety percent went to keeping my head above water.

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

There has been a marvelous joyous carnival of mourning for Edith Piaf and Jean Coctaeau, and it was real! They died as they had lived, with style and grace and their proper eccentricity; and Paris loves anybody who can live anarchically and be delightful entertainment at the same time. So do I.

Two-thirds of my energies go in trying to save one-third for work.

You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.

We have this mistaken notion that everybody in the world has to go to college. The colleges are already crowded with people who never in this world will absorb more than a rudimentary education, and we dilute everything to meet this low standard.

Evil is dull, that is the worst of it.