It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.

Revolution will free society of its afflictions, while science will free the individual of his.

Violence represents the worst kind of conformism.

I have a chest full of all the insults, villainies, and infamies a man is capable of withstanding. . . . If you become famous, you will have to go through that.

Prosperity or egalitarianism -- you have to choose. I favor freedom -- you never achieve real equality anyway: you simply sacrifice prosperity for an illusion.

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.

Writers are the exorcists of their own demons.