Literary prizes serve a purpose if they allow for discussion of books.

Love is a glimpse of hope. To love is to hope. When we abandon hope, we cease to exist.

What reality was ever made by realists?

I think writing should be about change.

I had some bad jobs when I was young. Writing is not one of them. If you're fortunate enough to reach my age, to still be writing, you have to be grateful, and I am. I've been lucky. For many years, all I've done is writing, and it's all I've ever wanted to do.

Is it easier for a man to live his life again as a fish, than to accept the wonder of being human? So alone, so frightened, so wanting for what we are afraid to give tongue to.

It's a sin for a writer to go looking for camels to put into his or her pages. I only want details that are the story.