The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.

I am the kind of writer that people think other people are reading.

Each book, intuitively sensed and, in the case of fiction, intuitively worked out, stands on what has gone before, and grows out of it.

All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there.

If ever you wish to meet intellectual frauds in quantity, go to Paris.

There are two ways of talking. One is the easy way, where you talk lightly, and the other one is the considered way. The considered way is what I have put my name to.

The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.