The father's life is surrounded by mysterious prestige: the hours he spends in the home, the room where he works, the objects around him, his occupations, his habits, have a sacred character. It is he who feeds the family, is the one in charge and the head. Usually he works outside the home, and it is through him that the household communicates with the rest of the world: he is the embodiment of this adventurous, immense, difficult, and marvelous world; he is transcendence, he is God.

In order to be an artist, one must be deeply rooted in the society.

Tonight, once more, life sinks its teeth into my heart.

At the moment of their emancipation, women have a need to write their own histories.

In every society the artist or writer remains an outsider.

A man would never get the notion of writing a book on the peculiar situation of the human male.

I had never believed in the sacred nature of literature. God had died when I was fourteen.