The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear.

The world is a great book, and we are the words.

I'm a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't and then tries the short story which is the most demanding form after poetry. And failing at that, only then does he turn to the novel.