I Have Failed At Many Things, But

Writers Themselves Don't Analyze What They Do; To Analyze Would Be To Look Down While Crossing A Canyon On A Tightrope.

I Couldn't Be Sufficiently Interested In Human Beings To Be A Writer If I Had Contempt For Human Beings.

If You Look At The Recent Nobel Prize Winners, One Couldn't Say That The Work Didn't Matter And The Political Commitment Did. Who Had Ever Heard Of The Egyptian Writer Naguib Mahfouz? He Is Not Politically Involved. Octavio Paz Is A Great Poet, Also Not Politically Involved. The Nobel Prize Is For Literature, For The Quality Of Work Over The Years.

I Shall Never Write An Autobiography, I'm Much Too Jealous Of My Privacy For That.

The Tension Between Standing Apart, And Being Fully Involved; That Is What Makes A Writer.