Art must take reality by surprise.

It seems to me that there are two kinds of trickery: the 'fronts' people assume before one another's eyes, and the 'front' a writer puts on the face of reality.

The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read.

I've read Proust and Stendhal. That keeps you in your place.

After Proust, there are certain things that simply cannot be done again. He marks off for you the boundaries of your talent.

I've tried very hard and I've never found any resemblance between the people I know and the people in my novels.