The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

A picture must be primarily about itself and not about something else.

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t.

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 take up novel writing.

The human being is a most curious creature. He thinks he has a soul, but he is a soul; he has a body.