Language is the most extraordinary invention in the history of humanity, the one which came before everything and which makes it possible to share everything.

And thus goes segregation which is the most far-reaching development in the history of the Negro since the enslavement of the race.

Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.

Human history in essence is the history of ideas.

The novelist, he's not a philosopher, not a technician of spoken language. He's someone who writes, above all, and through the novel asks questions.

The writer, the poet, the novelist, are all creators. This does not mean that they invent language; it means that they use language to create beauty, ideas, images. This is why we cannot do without them.