Gunter Grass

Art is so wonderfully irrational, exuberantly pointless, but necessary all the same. Pointless and yet necessary, that's hard for a puritan to understand.

I'm always astonished by a forest. It makes me realise that the fantasy of nature is much larger than my own fantasy. I still have things to learn.

Writers know that sometimes things are there in the drawer for decades before they finally come out and you are capable of writing about them.

In early 1993, when I was 12, I was separated from my family as the Sierra Leone civil war, which began two years earlier, came into my life.

I feel so grateful when I see a movie and there's a woman who looks somewhat like me. I'm like, 'Thank you, Samantha Morton!' You know, a woman who feels like a human being. That means so much to me.

A teacher must believe in the value and interest of his subject as a doctor believes in health.