...it is easy not to believe in monsters, considerably more difficult to escape their dread and loathsome clutches.

Even a fool could see that one didn't need a war, nuclear or otherwise, to destroy oneself; the rising cost of weaponry could do that quite nicely.

Nothing, my dear and clever colleague, is not your run-of-the-mill nothing, the result of idleness and inactivity, but dynamic, aggressive Nothingness, that is to say, perfect, unique, ubiquitous, in other words Nonexistence, ultimate and supreme.

There is only one positive role of the Nobel prize--it creates some common way to understand a writer. I cannot say, that I like this situation, but that's the way it goes. The books are being born and then walk around the world, just as children do.

I believe in no final solutions.

A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.

Cannibals prefer those who have no spines.