Very often we support change, and then are swept away by the change. I think that...you just make your own response to your own generation. A response adequate to your time.

The facts are always less than what really happened.

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.

As writers, we are exploring the mystery, the mystery of existence.

Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area.

it's impossible to conquer all fear and loss by preparation. There are always sources of desolation that aren't taken into account because no one knows what they will be.