You know, I can imagine not writing a novel and writing poetry only.

I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.

Boredom provides a stronger inclination to write than anything.

I rarely listen to music while writing. If I don't like it, it bothers me, and if I like it, it absorbs me so much I can't write.

And the process of reading is such a private one. I once came into a room where a friend of mine was reading one of my books, and he clicked his tongue impatiently and shooed me off.

Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river that had come down to earth so that its waters might flow over the ashes of those long dead, and that would continue to flow long after the human race had, through hatred and knowledge, burned itself out.

For a writer, obsession is a good substitute for self-discipline.