I've lived a lot in communist countries and they're intensely interested in money. I think they are more interested in money than capitalists are. They're the most materialistic people in the world. What they're actually living for is material things. The irony of that is that in communist countries there isn't anything to buy.

The only obligation any artist can have is to himself. His work means nothing, otherwise. It has no meaning.

How do I look so young? Quite simple: a complete vegetable diet, 12 hours sleep a night, and lots and lots of make-up.

I think I would have written five times as much as I've written if I didn't have this terrible sense of perfection.

It's a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year.

The brain may take advice, but not the heart.

I think the only person a writer has an obligation to is himself. If what I write doesn't fulfill something in me, if I don't honestly feel it's the best I can do, then I'm miserable.