Quotes from Jerzy Kosinski

It is not sex by itself that interests me, but its particular role in American consciousness, and in my own life.

Going around under an umbrella interferes with one's looking up at the sky.

Persons who have been homeless carry within them a certain philosophy of life which makes them apprehensive about ownership.

As I go to sleep I remember what my father said-that one can never be sure if one will awake. The way my health is now, this is becoming more and more real.

I look back into past history, the stored experiences or products of the imagination. I look no further forward than the evening.

Take a look at the books other people have in their homes.

I do like to live in other people's homes. I enjoy being a guest. I am an inexpensive guest. When one lives in another's home he can enter into the psychic kingdom of that person.

It is possible to stand around with a cocktail in one's hand and talk with everyone, which means with no one.

In London, the weather would affect me negatively. I react strongly to light. If it is cloudy and raining, there are clouds and rain in my soul.

The things I write are for those who are willing to accept a new relationship between the reader and the author.

Life is a state of mind.

The principle of art is to pause, not bypass.

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time.

Travel gives me the opportunity to walk through the sectors of cities where one can clearly see the passage of time.

As I go to sleep I remember what my father said-that one can never be sure if one will awake. The way my health is now, this is becoming more and more real.

I look back into past history, the stored experiences or products of the imagination. I look no further forward than the evening.

The things I write are for those who are willing to accept a new relationship between the reader and the author.

A trait which differentiated New York from European cities was the incredible freedom and ease in which life, including sexual life, could be carried on, on many levels.

There's a place beyond words where experience first occurs to which I always want to return. I suspect that whenever I articulate my thoughts or translate my impulses into words, I am betraying the real thoughts and impulses which remain hidden.

It seems that what I really want is a drug that will increase my consciousness of others, not myself.

Growth has its season. There are spring and summer, but there are also fall and winter. And then spring and summer again. As long as the roots are not severed, all is well and all be well.

Wouldn't it be easier to change people's eyes and hair than to build big furnaces and then catch Jews and Gypsies to burn them?

The principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.

Gatherings and, simultaneously, loneliness are the conditions of a writer's life