We're swallowed up only when we are willing for it to happen.

One can't write without having read - you have to read before beginning to write - and universities offer a very good opportunity to read.

I don't admire Freud as much as some people do. Imagine Shakespeare being aware of the Oedipal complex when he wrote Hamlet. It would have been a disaster.

Neither reproaches nor encouragements are able to revive a faith that is waning.

I have often heard that the novel is dead. But I see novels produced, I don't know how many a week, in France. I have the impression it's carrying along quite well.

I have never sought the reason why I write.

The reader has to be creative when he's reading. He has to try to make the thing alive. A good reader has to do a certain amount of work when he is reading.