I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy—for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?

It is interesting to note that everyone has a different take on the world, a different opinion, and given the same inputs have completely different outputs.

Helping other people is a drug so dangerous that there is no cure short of total abstention.

I believe that people should write biographies only about people they love, or understand, or both. Novels, on the other hand, are often better if they're about people the writer doesn't like very much.

A word of advice. If, as a young man, student, you are tormented by a desire for women, it is best to get out into the fresh air as much as possible.

Duty is what no-one else will do at the moment.

Experiences aren't given to us to be 'got over,' otherwise they would hardly be experiences.