Every utopia - let's just stick with the literary ones - faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don't fit in?

If you want to be a writer, you should go into the largest library you can find and stand there contemplating the books that have been written. Then you should ask yourself, 'Do I really have anything to add?' If you have the arrogance or the humility to say yes, you will know you have the vocation.

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.

Myths can't be translated as they did in their ancient soil. We can only find our own meaning in our own time.

We have been shark to one another, but also lifeboat.

But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.

A language is everything you do.