I Know My Father And My Mother,

I Often Wonder What Would Have Happened To Me If I Hadn't Made That Decision. I Suppose I Would Have Sunk. I Suppose I Would Have Found Some Kind Of Hole And Tried To Hide Or Pass. After All, We Make Ourselves According To The Ideas We Have Of Our Possibilities. I Would Have Hidden In My Hole And Been Crippled By My Sentimentality, Doing What I Was Doing, And Doing It Well, But Always Looking For The Wailing Wall. And I Would Never Have Seen The World As The Rich Place That It Is. You Wouldn't Have Seen Me Here In Africa, Doing What I Do.

Each Book, Intuitively Sensed And, In The Case Of Fiction, Intuitively Worked Out, Stands On What Has Gone Before, And Grows Out Of It.

If You Decide To Move To Another Country And To Live Within Its Laws You Don't Express Your Disregard For The Essence Of The Culture. It's A Form Of Aggression.

A Civilization Which Has Taken Over The World Cannot Be Said To Be Dying.

In A Way My Reputation Has Become That Of The Curmudgeon.