That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not. It leads, in the worst cases -- in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim -- it leads to increased rates of suicide. There are more suicides in developed, individualistic countries than in any other part of the world. And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally -- they own their success, but they also own their failure.

The only thing that separates successful people from the others is hard work.

The most important thing is to have a child. Everything else is secondary.

The duty of literature is to disturb, to question, to undermine certainties.