“I wouldn't ever write the full sentence myself, but then, I never use goto either.”

“It takes me six months to do a story. I think it out and then write it sentence by sentence—no first draft. I can’t write five words but that I change seven.”

“I bought it for myself but never used it. I was tempted, but I never used it.”

“I turn sentences around. That's my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and turn it around again…”

“Later I became very involved in writing. I really enjoyed that moment of writing. People would pass around my sentences. That was a feeling I never had before. It was like a bullet out of the gun.”

““To write my essay I had to read books differently, without giving myself over to either fear or adoration. ””

“I don't write in Portuguese. I write myself.”

“I begin with writing the first
sentence—and trusting to Almighty
God for the second.”

“I am essentially a religious type. In my teens I gave up Catholicism, and at the same time I started writing. Writing keeps me at my desk, constantly trying to write a perfect sentence. It is a great privilege to make one's living from writing sentences. The sentence is the greatest invention of civilization. To sit all day long assembling these extraordinary strings of words is a marvelous thing. I couldn't ask for anything better. It's as near to godliness as I can get.”

“Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be.”