Every country should have a strong literary tradition of its own at the center, but it should also have an interest in other countries.

One need hardly dwell on the catastrophic possibility of uttering a bantering remark only to discover it wholly inappropriate

There was a time you saw me once, one afternoon, in the dormitories. There was no one else around, and I was playing this tape, this music. I was sort of dancing with my eyes closed and you saw me.' '...yes, I remember that occasion. I still think about it from time to time.' 'That's funny, so do I.

The book was at a reasonably high position on the New York Times... before I was in the country. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if my presence here would push it up or down.

As I say, I have never in all these years thought of the matter in quite this way; but then it is perhaps in the nature of coming away on a trip such as this that one is prompted towards such surprising new perspectives on topics one imagined one had long ago thought throughly.

Every country should have a strong literary tradition of its own at the center, but it should also have an interest in other countries.

What interests me is the surprising enormous extent to which most people accept the fate that's been given to them, and find some dignity.