What was past was past. I suppose that was the general attitude.

Whenever I have had to write fiction, I've always had to invent a character who roughly has my background.

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

Writers should provoke disagreement.

I had no student friends to talk to about literature. My tutor was a really nice man, very charming - but he had no literary judgment.

I will say I am the sum of my books.

If you write a novel alone you sit and you weave a little narrative. And it's O.K., but it's of no account.