When one starts writing a book, especially a novel, even the humblest person in the world hopes to become Homer.

The function of memory is not only to preserve, but also to throw away. If you remembered everything from your entire life, you would be sick.

The only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.

If photography is to be likened to perception, this is not because the former is a natural process but because the latter is also coded.

It is clear that when you write a story that takes place in the past, you try to show what really happened in those times. But you are always moved by the suspicion that you are also showing something about our contemporary world.

Political satire is a serious thing. In democratic newspapers throughout the world there are daily cartoons that often are not even funny, as is the case especially in many English-language newspapers. Instead, they contain a political message, and the artist takes full responsibility.

We live for books.