“I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist.”

I sometimes confuse myself with the little I know.

As long as a man stays alive he can’t tell what chances will pop up next. But a dead man signs no checks.

We have in my country (Russia) a quotation: “It is impossible to make out of apology a fur coat.

First drafts are for learning what your story is about.

Writers who can’t invent stories often substitute style for narrative. They remind me of the painter who couldn’t paint people, so he painted chairs.

All men are Jews, though few men know it.

You can’t eat language but it eases thirst.

One’s fantasy goes for a walk and returns with a bride.

The short story packs a self in a few pages predicating a lifetime

Reader, I am myself the subject of my book; you would be unreasonable to spend your leisure on so frivolous and so vain a matter.

We’re persecuted in the most civilized languages.

Charity you can give even when you haven’t got.

You could not pity anything if you weren’t a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention.

Completed, most lives were alike in stages of living-joys, celebrations, crises, illusions, losses, sorrows.

The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better.

You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time or place—you suit yourself, your nature.

There is a world of created beings – living things, animals, entelechies, and souls – in the least part of matter. Thus there is nothing waste, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe; no chaos, no confusions, save in appearance.

I don’t make changes to confuse anyone. I’m just searching. That’s what causes me to change. I’m just searching for myself.

There is nothing waste, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe; no chaos, no confusions, save in appearance.

Nothing is more confusing than people who give good advice but set a bad example.

People who confuse what they wish were true with what is really true create distorted pictures of reality that make it impossible for them to make the best choices.

I think honestly, some people who think they’re gay, they’re confused.

There is a big confusion in this country over what we want verses what we need you need food. You want a chocolate sundae.

As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I’m severed.