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.

The creative act is not pure. History evidences it. Sociology extracts it. The writer loses Eden, writes to be read and comes to realize that he is answerable.

Disaster is private, in its way, as love is.

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.

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

The function of a writer is to make sense of life. It is such a mystery, it changes all the time, like the light.

The solitude of writing is also quite frightening. It's quite close to madness, one just disappears for a day and loses touch.