I would like to carve my novel in a piece of wood. My characters—I would like to have them heavier, more three-dimensional. . . My characters have a profession, have characteristics; you know their age, their family situation, and everything. But I try to make each one of those characters heavy, like a statue, and to be the brother of everybody in the world.
Neither men, nor gods, nor booksellers' shelves permit ordinary poets to exist. [Lat. , Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae. ]