I don't write to give joy to readers but to give them a conscience.

A mother knows what her child's gone through, even if she didn't see it herself.

Every good teaching may still end up producing evil bandits who have no principles whatsoever, an outcome even more likely when the teacher is also a bandit.

Even though no one admits it, writers are leaders in their communities.

Humankind is able to create new conditions, a new reality. We are not fated to swim forever among the realities that are here now. ... Everything that is worthwhile in human civilization has not only originated from but has been inspired by dreams, by imagination.

I happen to be pretty productive when I am in jail. When you are in jail, you have to spend more time with yourself.

Painting is literature in colors. Literature is painting in language.