The moment you give up your principles, and your values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period.
Objectivity does not exist. The word is a hypocrisy which is sustained by the lie that the truth stays in the middle. No, sir: Sometimes truth stays on one side only.
I’ll parade with those who are alone like me. They exist. They are very few, but they exist. I’ll find them.
I am disgusted by the anti-Semitism of many Italians, of many Europeans.
Glory is a heavy burden, a murdering poison, and to bear it is an art. And to have that art is rare.
I don’t want to hear about my death.
I cry, sometimes, because I’m not 20 years younger, and I’m not healthy. But if I were, I would even sacrifice my writing to enter politics.
Physical courage is a great test.
When my father was arrested, we didn’t know where they had him. My mother found him at the house of torture. It was called Villa Triste.
Is it right to shoot the poor prostitute or a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, or a man who loves another man?
I was a little girl fighting as a partisan against Nazi-Fascism.
I have never met a man more shy than Clark Gable. He was so shy, you couldn’t make him talk.
I don’t even know if I will be around next year. My cancers are so bad that I think I’ve arrived at the end of the road. What a pity. I would like to live not only because I love life so much, but because I’d like to see the result of the trial. I do think I will be found guilty.
Sometimes the dead are more alive than the living. And they can kill the living.
I have reached the conclusion that those who have physical courage also have moral courage. Physical courage is a great test.
Khomeini was not a puppet like Arafat or Qaddafi or the many other dictators I met in the Islamic world. He was a sort of Pope, a sort of king – a real leader.
Without Khomeini, we would not be where we are. What a pity that, when pregnant with him, his mother did not choose to have an abortion.
If you put a pistol against my head and ask which I think is worse, Muslims or Mexicans, I’d have to think a moment, then I’d say the Muslims because they’ve broken my balls.
Have you ever thought that war is a madhouse and that everyone in the war is a patient?
I am known for a life spent in the struggle for freedom, and freedom includes the freedom of religion.
I am a danger to myself if I get angry.