The wise man does not discriminate; he gathers all the shreds of light, from wherever they may come...
Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation. In their positive form, they become diplomats.
Simple mechanisms do not love.
The good of a book lies in its being read.
Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings.
A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.
After years of practice, I can walk into a bookstore and understand its layout in a few seconds. I can glance at the spine of a book and make a good guess at its content from a number of signs.
Beauty has never been absolute and immutable but has taken on different aspects depending on the historical period and the country.
The more elusive and ambiguous a symbol is, the more it gains significance and power.
The hand of God creates; it does not conceal.
The Devil is not the Prince of Matter; the Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt. The Devil is grim because he knows where he is going, and, in moving, he always returns whence he came.
The only truths that are useful are instruments to be thrown away.
The Internet gives us everything and forces us to filter it not by the workings of culture, but with our own brains. This risks creating six billion separate encyclopedias, which would prevent any common understanding whatsoever.
Never affirm, always allude: allusions are made to test the spirit and probe the heart.
There is only one thing that you write for yourself, and that is a shopping list.
A novel is a machine for generating interpretations.
Captain Cook discovered Australia looking for the Terra Incognita. Christopher Columbus thought he was finding India but discovered America. History is full of events that happened because of an imaginary tale.
Conspiracies do exist. Probably in this moment in New York there is an economic group making a conspiracy in order to buy three banks. But if they succeed, they are immediately discovered.
We invented the car, and it made it easier for us to crash and die. If I gave a car to my grandfather, he would die in five minutes, while I have grown up slowly to accept speed.
How beautiful was the spectacle of nature not yet touched by the often perverse wisdom of man!