Style is not neutral; it gives moral directions.

I'm not interested in making a diagnostic novel or a concern. I'm 100 percent committed in fiction to the pleasure principle - that's what fiction is, and should be.

Probably all writers are at some point briefly under the impression that they are in the forefront of disintegration and chaos, that they are among the first to live and work after things fall apart.

They're always looking forward to going places they're just coming back from, or regretting doing things they haven't yet done. They say hello when they mean goodbye.

It's a young country and a German only feels comfortable being with the masses. They have very little talent at creating an inner life, privacy. And I think there must be something wrong.

The satirist isn't just looking at things ironically but militantly - he wants to change them, and intends to have an effect on the world.

The literary interview won't tell you what a writer is like. Far more compellingly to some, it will tell you what a writer is like to interview.