The great advantage of a novel is you can put in whatever comes into your head - it has the same shape as the human brain.

Now abideth beauty, truth, and intensity; but the greatest of these is intensity.

Active people don't change the world profoundly; ideas do. Napoleon is less important in world history than Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

People are suspicious of single men on vacation, after they get to a certain age: they assume that they're selfish, and probably a bit pervy. I can't say they're wrong.

My novels are all ideas.

Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new realistic novels. We generally know where we stand in relation to reality and don’t care to know any more.

It's a curious idea to reproduce when you don't even like life.