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.

Those who live in a world of human beings can only retrace their steps.

Television has lifted the manufacture of banality out of the sphere of handicraft and placed it in that of a major industry.

I have never sought the reason why I write.

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.

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

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