I tend to think that good and evil exist and that the quantity in each of us is unchangeable. The moral character of people is set, fixed until death.

Those who think they know me are simply lacking in information.

I think that if I am notorious, it is because other people have decided that this is how I should be.

In my own writing, I think of myself as a realist who exaggerates a little.

Why am I popular? I don't know. Is it a mistake? I should think it's a mistake somewhere.

I think that if writers don't speak about real life, it's because they don't know it.

I want to be loved despite my faults. It isn't exactly true that I'm a provocateur. A real provocateur is someone who says things he doesn't think, just to shock. I try to say what I think.

When we think about the present, we veer wildly between the belief in chance and the evidence in favour of determinism. When we think about the past, however, it seems obvious that everything happened in the way that it was intended.

I think it's more difficult to live without a religion, definitely.