They say it only takes an instant to have a dream; a dream can be compressed into hardtack.

Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self.

Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens.

If you want to do anything, do it now, without compromise or concession, because you have only one life.

Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.

Loneliness is a prerequisite for freedom. Freedom depends on the ability to reflect, and reflection can only begin when one is alone.

It's in literature that true life can be found. It's under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.

Love is so holy, so confusing. It makes a man anxious, tormented. Love, how can I define it?

I don't want to be a strong hero who can save society. I just want to save myself.

For me, writing [was] a question of survival...I could not trust anyone, even my family. The atmosphere was so poisoned. People even in your own family could turn you in.

Perhaps it's impolite to die so flippantly, after all she's done for me.

... the story of my marriage, which is the great joy and astonishment of my life, is too much like a fairy tale, the German kind, unsweetened by Disney.

God never got around to creating a substitute for experience.

I find there is a quality to being alone that is incredibly precious. Life rushes back into the void, richer, more vivid, fuller than before.

Swinging harder with a longer club almost always leads to bad shots.

Find out what your temptations are, and you will find out largely what you are yourself.

There is nothing so wrong in this world that a sensible woman can't set it right in the course of an afternoon.

We do have evidence the [Donald] Trump campaign was working to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue.

Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning you give it.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!