Writers are the exorcists of their own demons.

Science is still only a candle glimmering in a great pitch-dark cavern.

I completely believe that - literature for me is a way of life. That's probably true of all writers or all artists. I think in the end this kind of activity absorbs one in such a way that it becomes one's way of life.

Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.

We must mistrust utopias: they usually end in holocausts.

Literature is a form of permanent insurrection. Its mission is to arouse, to disturb, to alarm, to keep men in a constant state of dissatisfaction with themselves.

There are people with a lot of prejudice, a lot of fear of the unknown. They think that immigration is a danger, when really it is a solution. This is an interesting issue, because it will be a central question of our time.