One of the biggest problems in literature is the lack of subtlety.

People who are strangers to liquor are incapable of talking about literature.

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.

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

For a country boy, poor as I was, whose constant worry was to be able to have enough to eat, the Army guaranteed one's survival.