Chekhov is this poet of melancholy and isolation and of wishing you were somewhere else than where you are.

I get a lot of letters - a lot of letters saying, who knew that you were funny?

One of the characteristics of mudslinging is that mud sticks if it's thrown with enough force for long enough.

You don't that often see writers being sought out when there are matters of great moment to discuss. And I think that's a loss.

I don't think there really is much of a left in America, certainly by European standards even the left is quite right wing here.

What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.

If Turkey wants to join Europe, it will have to become a European country, and that might take a long time.