“Interviewer: So between those two, if you lived in your own manga world, what would you be like?”

“Interviewer: What would you like carved onto your tombstone? Banville: I'd rather not have a tombstone.”

“I was once being interviewed by Barbara Walters… In between two of the segments she asked me…"But what would you do if the doctor gave you only six months to live?" I said, "Type faster." This was widely quoted, but the "six months" was changed to "six minutes," which bothered me. It's "six months."”

“What kind of living will it be when you - Oh, God! Would you like to live with your soul in the grave?”

“Friends you will have need of, for in you two worlds meet. There is no one on both sides with you, so you must learn to take your own counsel; and not to fear what is strange, if you know it also to be true.
—Luthe”

“Interview "Cosmopolitan Sofia":
If there were a fire in your house, what would be the first thing you would take away with you?
- I would take away my legs.”

“If I was a junkman selling you cars,
Washing your windows and shining your stars,
Thinking your mind was my own in a dream
What would you wonder and how would it seem?
Living in castles a bit at a time
The King started laughing and talking in rhyme.
Singing words, words between the lines of age.
Words, words between the lines of age.”

“You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world.”

“You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.”

“Here is my experience. Stay away from the ones you love too much. Those are the ones who will kill you. What you want to live and be happy in the world is a woman who has her own life and lets you have yours.”