Where there's life, death is inevitable. Dying's easy; it's living that's hard. The harder it gets, the stronger the will to live. And the greater the fear of death, the greater the struggle to keep on living.

The act of giving voice to this spiritual suffering is, in my view, the sacred duty of the writer.

A writer should bury his thoughts deep and convey them through the characters in his novel.

I write about my region, the countryside in which I grew up.

I think writers write for their consciences, they write for their own true audiences, for their souls.

No person writes to win awards.

When literature exists, perhaps we do not notice how important it is, but when it does not exist, our lives become coarsened and brutal. For this reason, I am proud of my profession, but also aware of its importance.