Reader, I am myself the subject of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and so vain a matter..

A man is an island in the only sense that matters, not an easy way to be. We live in mystery, a cosmos of separate lonely bodies, men, insects, stars….

We have in my country (Russia) a quotation: "It is impossible to make out of apology a fur coat..

If the stories come, you get them written, you're on the right track. Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack i….

It was all those biographies in me yelling, 'We want out. We want to tell you what we've done to you.'.

Politics isn't in my nature..

Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder..

All men are Jews, though few men know it..

A writer is a spectator, looking at everything with a highly critical eye..

The great thing about writing: Stay with it ... ultimately you teach yourself something very important about yourself..

Space plus whatever you feel equals more whatever you feel, marvelous for happiness, God save you otherwise..

I work with language. I love the flowers of afterthought..

For misery don't blame God. He gives the food but we cook it..

(Clothes) cannot change a man's nature. He's either kind or he isn't, with or without clothes..

Writing is a mode of being. If I write I live..

When I don't feel hurt, I hope they bury me..

I don't think you can do anything for anyone without giving up something of your own..

Writers who can't invent stories often substitute style for narrative. They remind me of the painter who couldn't paint people, so he painted chairs..

I write a book at least three times-once to understand it, the second time to improve the prose, and a third to compel it to say what it still must s….

Ithink Isaid'All menare Jews excepttheydon't know it.'I doubt I expected anyone to take the statement literally. But I think it's an understandable s….

The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course.