What was venerated as style was nothing more than an imperfection or flaw that revealed the guilty hand.

I believe that it isn't victories but defeats that promote nationalism.

When two people love each other as we do, no one can come between them, no one," I said, amazed at the words I was uttering without preparation. "Lovers like us, because they know that nothing can destroy their love, even on the worst days, even when they are heedlessly hurting each other in the cruelest , most deceitful ways, still carry in their hearts a consolation that never abandons them." (p.191)

Without patience and the skill of a craftsman, even the greatest talent is wasted.

A writer in someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him who he is.

I don’t like to make strong statements. I want to write strong novels … I keep my deep radical things for my novels.

Novels are political not because writers carry party cards -- some do, I do not -- but because good fiction is about identifying with and understanding people who are not necessarily like us. By nature all good novels are political because identifying with the other is political. At the heart of the 'art of the novel' lies the human capacity to see the world through others' eyes. Compassion is the greatest strength of the novelist.