"

Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of...more

"

A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the w

"

Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay

"

A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.", Frankfurt Book Fair, October 12, 2003]

"

My urge to write is an urge not to self-expressionism but to self-transcendence. My work is both bigger and smaller than I am.

"

If I thought that what I'm doing when I write is expressing myself, I'd junk the typewriter. Writing is a much more complicated activity that that.

"

My idea of a writer: someone interested in everything.

"

Writing is a mysterious activity.

"

The writer is either a practicing recluse or a delinquent, guilt-ridden one--or both. Usually both.

"

For the modern consciousness, the artist (replacing the saint) is the exemplary sufferer. And among artists, the writer, the man of words, is the pers...more

"

The photographer is now charging real beasts, beleaguered and too rare to kill. Guns have metamorphosed into cameras in this earnest comedy, the ecolo...more