How some of the writers I come across get through their books without dying of boredom is beyond me.

Power doesn't corrupt people; people corrupt power.

If it is not beautiful for someone, it does not exist.

Say a word, say a thousand to me on the telephone and I shall choose the wrong one to cling to as though you had said it after long deliberation when only I provoked it from you, I will cling to it from among a thousand, to be provoked and hurl it back with something I mean no more than you meant that, something for you to cling to and retreat clinging to.

I mean why should somebody go steal and break the law to get all they can when there's always some law where you can be legal and get it all anyway!

There is nothing more distressing or tiresome than a writer standing in front of an audience and reading his work.

Justice? You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.