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

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

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.

A good work can be communicated across languages ... [provided one does not] fall into the trap of narrow-minded nationalistic or chauvinistic thinking.

The more you delve into science, the more it appears to rely on faith.

Any point of view reflects some side of truth and must not claim that it is complete

Forgot what you think and remember what you feel.

Never make a personnel judgment the first time it comes up.

Once you discover white paint, you'll never wash your underwear again.

Though it sounds absurd, it is true to say I felt younger at sixty than I felt at twenty.

I've always been kind of surrounded by music my whole life, so my earliest memories of it were just hearing it in the house.

Living with these teenage boys allowed me to see how much their psyches were like their girl counterparts. They were more familiar to me than I would have thought.

My dad was very fun and very adventurous, and from a formative age I learned to value men who would do things on a whim.

Sire, you are looking at a plain man, and I am looking at a great man. Each of us may benefit.