Without literature my life would be miserable.

It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.

I thought they would never select an Eastern writer for the Nobel. I was surprised.

Literature should be more revolutionary than revolutions themselves; writers must find the means to continue to be critical of the negative elements in the sociopolitical reality.

I was a government employee in the morning and a writer in the evening.

I was suffering from a peculiar and persistent sense that I was being pursued, and also the conviction that under the political order of the times, our lives had no meaning.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.