I realised, of course, that other people used these roads; but that night, it seemed to me these dark byways of the country existed just for the like….

Indeed — why should I not admit it? — in that moment, my heart was breaking..

There's a practical problem about time and energy, and a more subtle problem of what it does to a writer's head, to continually analyze why they writ….

What interests me is the surprising enormous extent to which most people accept the fate that's been given to them, and find some dignity..

It is one of the enjoyments of retirement that you are able to drift through the day at your own pace, easy in the knowledge that you have put hard w….

When I see films made from books, I make a huge effort not to remember the book. It's important to see the film as a film..

When you become a parent, or a teacher, you turn into a manager of this whole system. You become the person controlling the bubble of innocence aroun….

I was very young when I prepared those prints. I suspect the reason I couldn't celebrate the floating world was that I couldn't bring myself to belie….

The reason I wouldn't dare to write a Western is simply because that seems to be so much a part of American culture. Maybe if I want to write a Weste….

There was surely nothing to indicate at the time that such evidently small incidents would render whole dreams forever irredeemable..

There comes a point when you can more or less count the number of books you're going to write before you die..

It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic bec….

Perhaps one day, all these conflicts will end, and it won't be because of great statesmen or churches or organisations like this one. It'll be becaus….

Perhaps it is indeed time I began to look at this whole matter of bantering more enthusiastically. After all, when one thinks about it, it is not suc….

But then, I suppose, when with the benefit of hindsight one begins to search one's past for such 'turning points', one is apt to start seeing them ev….

A man who aspires to rise above the mediocre, to be something more than the ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if he fails and loses a fortun….

Every country should have a strong literary tradition of its own at the center, but it should also have an interest in other countries..

What is difficult is the promotion, balancing the public side of a writer's life with the writing. I think that's something a lot of writers are havi….

And if these incidents now seem full of significance and all of a piece, it's probably because I'm looking at them in the light of what came later..

The world is crawling with authors touring now. They're like performance artists..

There is certainly a satisfaction and dignity to be gained in coming to terms with the mistakes one has made in the course of one’s life.