A constant interrogation.

Do you realize that people don't know how to read Kafka simply because they want to decipher him? Instead of letting themselves be carried away by his unequaled imagination, they look for allegories - and come up with nothing but clichés: life is absurd (or it is not absurd), God is beyond reach (or within reach), etc. You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.

When I was a little boy in short pants, I dreamed about a miraculous ointment that would make me invisible. Then I became an adult, began to write, and wanted to be successful. Now I'm successful and would like to have the ointment that would make me invisible.

The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness.

Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality.

Disgust at having to talk about oneself is what distinguishes novelistic talent from lyric talent.

Fidelity gives a unity to lives that would otherwise splinter into thousands of split-second impressions.