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That's why I write fiction, because I want to write these stories that people will read and find universal.

I'm never interested in writing a kind of neutral, universal novel that could be set anywhere. To me, the novel is a local thing.

In order to be universal, you have to be rooted in your own culture.

I never sit down to write anything personal unless I know the subject is going to go beyond my own experience and address something larger and more universal.

A sense of place is very important in writing.

When I write I'm never really thinking about themes or the universal.

It's hard to say if actual places really affect the way you write.

Every writer hopes or boldly assumes that his life is in some sense exemplary, that the particular will turn out to be universal.

One of the wonders of science is that it is completely universal. It crosses national boundaries with total ease.

A writer is justly called 'universal' when he is understood within the limits of his civilization, though that be bounded by a country or an age.