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No one wants a masterpiece knocking around when your own book is looking for attention.
When I think of Hungarian films, I think of despair and bleakness, and what's more, despair and bleakness of indefensible duration.
Miami, in many ways, is a quintessentially American city. The juxtaposition of showy wealth with dire pennilessness, the tussle of glitz and decay doesn't come any more marked than here.
There's prejudice and poverty in Hungary as there is in every country.
Because my name is Hungarian, everyone assumed I knew about Hungary. I didn't. They also assumed that if you knew about Hungary, you also knew about the rest of Eastern Europe.
It's what the reader thinks that counts.
Most books reviews aren't very well-written. They tend to be more about the reviewer than the book.
Criticism is part of being in the marketplace. If you can't take a bit of criticism, you shouldn't bother publishing a book.
Travelling is difficult, and writers tend to want to stay at home and do their work.
I'm not the most prolific writer in the world, and, sadly, writing a novel involves a lot of effort.
I went to a British Council event a while back and there were lots of German professors of literature. About half of them were convinced I had a German sense of humour and the other half were sure it was British. They are probably still arguing about it now.
It's true, some senior Hungarian writers are not known for their laughter. There is a strong Germanic influence - an attitude that if it's enjoyable it can't possibly be literature.
I never could get a proper job.
New York City has fantastic restaurants and, unlike London, a lot of the best restaurants are relatively cheap.
Most Hungarians know what it was to live in a dictatorship; some are old enough to have known both fascism and communism. No one wants to go back to that.
Usually, when you make a decision in life, unless you have access to parallel universes, you can't truly judge how right that decision was.
You can't really win as a Booker judge. If you choose the obvious names, the unit-shifters, you're accused of being timid and unimaginative; if you choose the unfamous, you're labelled willful and perverse.
Outside their country, Hungarian directors have had, from the critics at least, a friendly reception.
Some years ago, I fired my agent, Andrew Wylie, alias The Jackal. I want to stress this wasn't an amicable parting of the ways or a hankering on my part for fresh representation. I fired him because his agency wasn't doing enough for me.
One of the reasons why I don't write the same kind of book again and again is that I get bored very easily, so I like to make things interesting for myself.
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