Beds last on an average much longer than marriages.

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.

When a country is strong... it accepts any dose of pessimism from its writers.

I admit that invective is one of my pleasures. This only brings me problems in life, but that's it. I attack, I insult. I have a gift for that, for insults, for provocation. So I am tempted to use it.

The absence of the will to live is, alas, not sufficient to make one want to die.

When we think about the present, we veer wildly between the belief in chance and the evidence in favour of determinism. When we think about the past, however, it seems obvious that everything happened in the way that it was intended.

I think that if writers don't speak about real life, it's because they don't know it.