Here among my books, my wife, my friends and my loves, I have plenty of reasons to keep living.

The real bombs are my books, not me.

I am a morning writer; I am writing at eight-thirty in longhand and I keep at it until twelve-thirty, when I go for a swim. Then I come back, have lunch, and read in the afternoon until I take my walk for the next day's writing.

I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.

I believe in books that do not go to a ready-made public. I'm looking for readers I would like to make. To win them, to create readers rather than to give something that readers are expecting. That would bore me to death.

There are plenty of reasons not to put up with the world as it is.