I think it's really boring, from the point of view of the novelist, to write about yourself. Tedious. But that's very hard to explain to people who really don't believe in the possibility of invention.

I did not know that history is like a blood stain that keeps on showing on the wall no matter how many new owners take possession, no matter how many times we pint over it.

I'm interested in where we are, where we're going, where we've come from.

I never base characters on real people. There are people who do that but I really don't know how to do it.

I don't think you have the right to shout about other people's private life.

Living where I live New York I don't think anyone's going to make a fuss. But it is more deeply satisfying because it's of your place and means that you aren't forgotten; someone's noticed what you have been doing with your life.

My greatest pleasure is to invent. My continual mad ambition is to make something true and beautiful that never existed in the world before.