I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning.

You cannot observe people through an ideology. Your ideology observes for you.

Everybody who flashed the signs of loyalty he took to be loyal. Everybody who flashed the signs of intelligence he took to be intelligent. And so he had failed to see into his daughter, failed to see into his wife, failed to see into his one and only mistress—probably had never even begun to see into himself

Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.

Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.

Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.

The secret to living in the rush of the world with a minimum of pain is to get as many people as possible to string along with your delusions.