“We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity - romantic love and gunpowder.”

“Old age is far more than white hair, wrinkles, the feeling that it is too late and the game finished, that the stage belongs to the rising generations. The true evil is not the weakening of the bod...”

“An artist must be a reactionary. He has to stand out against the tenor of the age and not go flopping along.”

“Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form.”

“Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.”

“The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.”

“Sometimes two people have to fall apart, to realize how much they need to fall back together.”

“Good literature is one key to peace. When we stop reading each other, when we stop paying attention to each other's words and stories, we too easily oppose one another.”

“There is only one motive for writing a novel: to be published and read. To me there is no distinction between the mystery novel and the novel, only between good books and bad books. A good book tak...”