Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.

Inevitably, the flood of literary pornography loosed on us is dulling our reactions of surprise or shock. Its writers are forced to raise the ante, to provide stronger and stronger stimulants. Or try to provide them, since both the manner, the naming of parts and the few inexpressive four-letter words, and the matter, are narrowly limited.

The past is able to close round certain moments, as if they were seeds, and deliver them again fresh and living in the present.

I am never happier than when I am alone in a foreign city; it is as if I had become invisible.

If we are to survive on this planet, there must be compromises.

Surprise will be my last emotion, not fear.

A joke is a joke or the image of a truth.