Violence represents the worst kind of conformism.

Violence represents the worst kind of conformism.

We must mistrust utopias: they usually end in holocausts.

North American society could not have reached its state of high development and modernity had it not been an open society.

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

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.

I have been always fascinated and seduced by history, which I think is very close, very close to literature.