The act of writing is a kind of catharsis, a liberation, but I never really concerned myself with that. I write because it interests me.

I don't for a minute think that Hitler is like Joan of Arc. But I think that at that deep level of tropisms, Hitler or Stalin must have experienced the same tropisms as anyone else.

Literature is always trying to show other parts of this immense universe in which we live. It's endless. I'm sure there will be other writers who will discover new worlds.

One can't write for all readers. A poet cannot write for people who don't like poetry.

It's a question of not copying the masters, to look for something, good or bad, for oneself. To enter this liberated state of mind, one cannot copy the others.

The novel moves like all the arts. It's transforming itself all the time.

Women have seen that they have locked themselves up with feminist writing.