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.

I have learned since that sometimes the things we want most are impossible for us. You may long to come home, yet wander forever.

The gap between the committed and the indifferent is a Sahara whose faint trails, followed by the mind's eye only, fade out in sand.

All worthwhile writing... comes from an individual vision, privately pursued.

I don't think I am a citizen of the world; I am very much a citizen of my own country. But my own country is closely related to other parts of the world and influenced by what happens there.

when it comes to their essential faculty as writers, all writers are androgynous beings.

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