People only tell lies when there is something they are terribly frightened of losing.

When you love a city and have explored it frequently on foot, your body, not to mention your soul, gets to know the streets so well after a number of years that in a fit of melancholy, perhaps stirred by a light snow falling ever so sorrowfully, you'll discover your legs carrying you of their own accord toward one of your favourite promontories

Age had not made him less handsome, as is so often the case; it had simply made him less visible.

Colour is the touch of the eye, Music to the deaf, A word out of darkness.

I identify with my culture, but I am happy to be living on a tolerant, intellectual island where I can deal with Dostoyevsky and Sartre, both great influences for me.

...a nation could change its way of life, its history, its technology, its art, literature, and culture, but it would never have a real chance to change its gestures.

No one drives me into exile, not even the nationalists.