Certainly the people who are close to me are happier. They feel freer.

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 couldn't be sufficiently interested in human beings to be a writer if I had contempt for human beings.

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.

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

The creative act is not pure. History evidences it. Ideology demands it. Society exacts it.

The Communist Party is very popular in South Africa, especially among the young people. Never having had a chance to travel, and having suffered so much under capitalism, they still can't believe that the Russian people themselves have rejected it.