The night stared me in the face, amorphous, blind, infinite, without frontiers. Not a single start relieved the darkness behind the glass.

I never read to kill time. Killing time is like killing someone's wife or a child. There is nothing more precious for me than time.

You believe by doubting and you doubt by believing; yet this state too is not the final one.

A smart machine will first consider which is more worth its while: to perform the given task or, instead, to figure some way out of it.

There is only one positive role of the Nobel prize--it creates some common way to understand a writer. I cannot say, that I like this situation, but that's the way it goes. The books are being born and then walk around the world, just as children do.

Giese was an unemotional man, but then in the study of Solaris emotion is a hindrance to the explorer. Imagination and premature theorizing are positive disadvantages in approaching a planet where-as has become clear-anything is possible... The fact is that in spite of his cautious nature the scrupulous Giese more than once jumped to premature conclusions. Even when on their guard, human beings inevitably theorize.

I felt myself being invaded through and through, I crumbled, disintegrated, and only emptiness remained.