Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding read more

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding friends-always ready to change the subject when you have had enough of this or that.

Satire is often the reflection of a kind of moral nausea.

Satire is often the reflection of a kind of moral nausea.

Reading is like permitting a man to talk a long time, and refusing you the right to answer.

Reading is like permitting a man to talk a long time, and refusing you the right to answer.

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of read more

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why --but the editorialists forget it --terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.

There are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; there are words the point of which sting the heart read more

There are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; there are words the point of which sting the heart through the course of a whole life.

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read.

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.