I couldn't imagine any other way of living, outside of books, outside my work. Which doesn't mean I am not interested in other things, of course - I am interested in many things. But the center, the crux, is always literature.

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

The secret to a masterpiece is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.

No democracy is born perfect, and none ever gets to be perfect. Yet democracy is superior to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes because, unlike them, democracy is perfectible.

But what do I have? The things I'm told and the things I tell, that's all. And as far as I know, that never yet made anyone fly.

There are many things behind a good novel, but in particular there is a lot of work - a lot of patience, a lot of stubbornness, and a critical spirit.