Man, when reduced to nothing, or in other words, a survivor, is not tragic but comic, because he has no fate. On the other hand, he lives with an awareness of tragic fate. This is a paradox.

The officer is a composite of various Americans who said the same thing. For everyone, it was an important decision whether to return home or go somewhere else. Those who had an idea there would be socialism in Hungary did not go back. I couldn't imagine going anywhere except home. I was like a stray dog.

I think a man turns into a writer by editing his own texts.

The world of fiction is a sovereign world that comes to life in the author's head and follows the rules of art, of literature. And that is the major difference that is reflected in the form of the work, in its language and its plot. An author invents every aspect of a fiction, every detail.

I came from two harsh dictatorships, Nazi and Stalinist. I never thought of becoming a writer as such, yet in a lucid moment, I recognised what I had to do.

A book is either autobiography or a novel.