In a certain sense a writer is 'selected' by his subject - his subject being the consciousness of his own era.

You can't change a regime on the basis of compassion. There's got to be something harder.

Can you imagine writers influencing things in America? Can you imagine a writer in England influencing? Absolutely not. And in France? It used to be, but no more - absolutely not. France used to, at least, have writers as diplomats, but not any more.

In a certain sense a writer is 'selected' by his subject - his subject being the consciousness of his own era.

I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.

Nothing fades so quickly as what is unchanged.

Everyone ends up moving alone towards the self