“So, when I write a piece of fiction I select my characters and settings and so on because they have a bearing, at least to me, on the old unanswerable philosophical questions. And as I spin out the action, I’m always very concerned with springing discoveries -- actual philosophical discoveries. But at the same time I’m concerned -- and finally more concerned -- with what the discoveries do to the character who makes them, and to the people around him. It’s that that makes me not really a philosopher, but a novelist.”

“I know what's in your mind. I know everything. That's what makes me so sick and old and tired.”

“Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound.”

“I leaf through the ancient philosophers and find my newest discoveries there.”

“As far as I am concerned, philosophic questioning is just as likely to make you confused and depressed as it is to improve your condition.”

“Be more concerned with character than reputation. Character is what you are, reputation is what people think you are.”

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”