When you read the Koran, you give up. At least the Bible is very beautiful because Jews have an extraordinary literary talent.

In reality, the monotheist texts preach neither peace, love nor tolerance. They are texts of hate.

In my own writing, I think of myself as a realist who exaggerates a little.

Tenderness is a deeper instinct than seduction, which is why it is so hard to give up hope.

The press may hate me, and I know my battles with them are not over, but that doesn't matter.

An entire life spent reading would have fulfilled my every desire; I already knew that at the age of seven. The texture of the world is painful, inadequate; unalterable, or so it seems to me. Really, I believe that an entire life spent reading would have suited me best. Such a life has not been granted me.

To increase desires to an unbearable level whilst making the fulfillment of them more and more inaccessible: this was the single principle upon which Western society was based.