It takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were really sensible, you'd do something else.

A critic is a lug-worm in the liver of literature.

I had become, with the approach of night, once more aware of loneliness and time - those two companions without whom no journey can yield us anything.

Prohibitions create the desire they were intended to cure.

I suppose the secret of his success is in his tremendous idleness which almost approaches the supernatural.

A diary is the last place to go if you wish to seek the truth about a person. Nobody dares to make the final confession to themselves on paper: or at least, not about love.

Love is like trench warfare - you cannot see the enemy, but you know he is there and that it is wiser to keep your head down.