The first person you should think of pleasing, in writing a book, is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length of time it takes to write a book, the publisher and the readers can and will come later.

It always gets late with you. - Is that a compliment?

Life is a long failure of understanding ... a long, mistaken shutting of the heart.

I prefer to live in the country where it's quiet. Woody Allen movies there are dubbed into Italian.

I have no television - I hate it.

He liked the fact that Venice had no cars. It made the city human. The streets were like veins, he thought, and the people were the blood, circulating everywhere.

That wasn't a bad price for a first book. My agent upped it as much as possible. I was 27 and had nothing behind me. I was working like a fool to earn a living and pay for my apartment